June 2023 – Camping on our First Year Anniversary

June 2023 – Lodi and I have been married a year already! I feel like June really crept up on us. With the promise that we would do LESS and spend LESS spoken out loud the Universe apparently had a good chuckle at our expense. We unfortunately had some septic problems over the course of late May and June *head hits desk*. We have an odd situation when it comes to the septic in this home. I knew we had at least two separate septic tanks when I moved in here back in 2015. When I gutted the home I noted that the house’s drains had been using both septic “outs” that left the house via the basement.

In my brain this is what I did: I drained out the second floor and the basement to the tank to the East. The entire main floor I drained out to the tank the North. I also really thought at the time that the North tank was probably the newest septic system (not) as it was PVC that was leaving the house and not very old looking black pipe.

Unfortunately the clean outs for the tank to the North had long since been lost and, honestly, I just kind of hoped for the best lol as everything was working fine…

It’s been on my list for SEVEN YEARS to find said tank that was in our yard to the North.

Well, it showed us where it was by over flowing.

June 2023, as septic problems go we’re about as lucky as it gets. Unlike most households we still had working bathrooms, showers etc. because they were plumbed out to the septic tank to the East.

We headed to the basement immediately to start planning on how to switch our main floor drains over to the other septic line and it was at that point that we found out that my memory of how I ran the drains was not exactly accurate.

(Throw me a bone here, the hell month that was me plumbing this entire home entirely alone eight years ago is a bit of a blur…)

We discovered that I had actually run the kitchen sink drain down to connect to the basement.

MEANING: We were only without one bathroom and our laundry. Everything else was already draining to the working septic system on the East side of the house!

Living without one bathroom and laundry for awhile was very doable!

My mom (bless her heart) even did two loads of laundry for us!

So we were about as “lucky” as it gets when it comes to having septic problems… June 2023 it still really sucked though and it is going to cost A LOT of money…

Lodi tackled it one day after work after I picked up all of the supplies the day before – he cut the main drain and connected it, across the basement, from the unusable tank, to the working septic tank to the East.

He capped off the tank to the North for good.

With that done our whole house is working fine now and we’re waiting on quotes to replace the septic we’re currently using.

(It might be working but in all of this we found out just how old it is and how badly it really does need to be replaced and brought up to code… sighs…)

We scrambled to complete all of that just in time to go camping for our anniversary…

Which isn’t exactly the happy lead up to vacationing that either of us would has liked!

Lodi and I took a couple of days off for our first year anniversary to go right back to the gorgeous national park where we got married last year.

Way way way back, I used to go camping alone at least a couple of times a year and I loved every minute of it. But life happens and I hadn’t been camping for over a decade and missed it so very much.

LODI GAVE ME MY WISH!!

Back in the day I was ready to practically go camping on a moments notice with two bins packed and the tent always ready to go. I can’t tell you how silly excited I was to plan out our menu and get everything ready!

With Lodi working nights I got up early and had the truck packed and ready to go when he got home.

All we had to do was drive to the park, setup our campsite and then… do nothing… or anything at all.

IT WAS HEAVEN

Lodi napped for a few hours while I read by the fire and it felt so wonderful to just be there and away from everything.

June 2023 the first evening we had steaks and campfire potatoes for dinner and listened to scary podcasts before bed.

Every day we got up slow, made coffee over the fire, grilled bacon and tootled out to the park. The first day we rented bikes and flew down the trails for hours before having appetizers and wine at the lodge.

Dinner that night was brats and smores, chips and dip and grilled asparagus.

Cheesy hashbrowns and breakfast burritos were on the menu one morning too with us plowing through 12 burritos over just a couple of days because they are so dang addictive.

(I scramble up a dozen eggs and 1 pound of spicy ground sausage, then wrap it up with a slice of American cheese in a medium flour tortilla. I then wrap each burrito up tightly in aluminum foil. They’re perfect for camping as they’re good cold, grilled, over an open fire, whatever lol.)

Our last day we sadly packed up camp but we weren’t quite done yet! We rented a pontoon and cruised for a couple of hours out on the lake where we said I DO exactly one year ago.

We got a little sun burned

We had an awesome time.

And what an entirely different experience than the year before.

Our wedding and honeymoon were wonderful and I wouldn’t have changed a thing… BUT IT WAS NOT EXACTLY RELAXING!

This departure was wonderfully easy. We didn’t have to be anywhere or go anywhere or do anything. We were just us and based every decision on whatever it was that made us happy.

Camping has always given me something that no other vacation can which is: CUT OFF.

I had little to no signal on my cell phone. There was (obviously lol) no WIFI. I literally CAN’T work whether I want to or not.

That departure from modern life is incredible for me.

And with his new schedule driving nights it was some very much needed, uninterrupted, time together. (We informed EVERYONE that we were nonnegotiably unreachable.)

June 2023 I don’t think Lodi realized what I’d meant all these years when I had told him how badly I wanted to take him camping like I used to. He rested, relaxed and napped. We took our time entirely together.

I saw the stress leave him in a way it hasn’t in a long time. It did our hearts so good.

A couple of nights camping has always been plenty with three nights pushing it a little bit for me…

At some point you realize that that bon fire smell is lovely at first but after awhile it saturates EVERYTHING and you really start looking forward to a shower!

As wonderful as it was it was also wonderful to come home, get clean, cozy up on the couch and enjoy climate control and electronics again.

IT WAS A PERFECT EXPERIENCE.

So, despite the septic issues and the hiring of someone to come tear down our barn… June 2023 will forever be by a bon fire in the quiet of a northern MN national park, with my lovely husband beside me.

I realized out there that I’ve been lonesome and getting bitchy about it.

We go days sometimes now without seeing each other because the other is sleeping.

I’ve been missing him.

Lodi gets two days off a week but not together and only one of them is on the weekend. Weekends are generally packed with obligations for me and he’s gotta make up some sleep at some point so its generally then.

So I decided to take his week day off with him. I went down to four days a week at my day job and I knew it would be cool but I had NO IDEA how great it would be for us and also just me mentally.

Its just one day a week but OMG!

I don’t know if its because its a week day or because no one else has it off or even knows I’m taking it off but its become just this special lazy day secret for us.

We sleep in and chill, spend it entirely together and make no plans.

And when we don’t get to see each other much, we know we will now, because we have our day.

Lodi and I did a bit of yard work this month too.

We utilized all of the dirt out of our old garden, doing some much needed back filling around our lower pea gravel deck as well as filling in some of the bald patches in our yard.

We planted creeping charlie, creeping thyme, dandelions and grass seed everywhere.

Of course I hope for the “weeds” to take over eventually so they can bloom all spring and summer for our bees.

June 2023 I also did some planting in our garden by the house. You can see our awesome purple chives blooming that I just love so I planted a lot more! Our asparagus is also doing wonderfully… but very slowly… so I planted even more of that too.

Hopefully they’ll fill the whole bed someday with chives and asparagus.

My container garden just makes me happy.

We put the containers right smack in my Grandma’s old perennial flower bed so I knew that by this time they would be surrounded by day lilies and I just kind of love it.

Everything has come up that I planted!

As usual the squash, peas, green beans and cucumbers are doing really well with the lettuce and herbs following behind. I’m crossing my fingers on the tomatoes and pepper plants – both of which I’ve struggled growing in the past.

Our carrots and beats were looking great until the chipmunks ate the beats… carrots are still coming along though lol.

I’m proud to say that I’m finally doing a better job thinning everything out this year.

I hate plucking seedlings even though I know I have to…

As usual (just a few houses down from us) my mom had a black bear come to take out her bird feeders. This year though she got some good pictures of him!

We’ve only been visited by a bear once and I think its due to them not wanting to tango with our dogs or our horse.

June 2023, we are definitely planning on doing a lot more camping but with some tweaks.

My wish was to have a revisit to the trips I used to have alone and Lodi wonderfully gave me that for our anniversary. But, in all honestly, its a very small tent lol.

A bigger tent for our next trip is a must and someday maybe even a little camper!