35 Days in, or in our case, Out.
So here’s what happened. Anyone that spends time writing will know this pain. Yesterday I had a nice long chatty post all finished and ready to add to the blog, and company arrived. I closed my lap top and started entertaining. A few hours later when I returned to share it with Erik, it was GONE. Where’d it go?! I hadn’t pressed anything. I had simply closed my laptop. But it’s true. It was in fact a goner.
And so, I will try again.
We woke this morning at 7am. In general I would say we have both always been early risers. Morning people. Even when most of our nights were spent inside we rose with the sun. Now though, as we always rise outside, the sun plays an even larger roll in our waking hour. There was no sun to be found this morning though. The air was heavy with fog and it felt more than a little chilly as I peaked my head out of the sleeping bag. With each breath Erik pushed visible air into the morning. Sunday morning... my favorite of all the mornings.
These last 35 nights were in fact ALL spent outside. As promised. We slept through a couple of them that were below zero and more than a few mornings we woke to snow on the bed. Every night the kids were with us they spent outside as well. They are pretty bad ass and get as excited as we do to tuck in together and spoon with the dogs. With the colder nights we have given them our double sleeping bag and are now trying out a new double bag from Teton Sports.
https://www.tetonsports.com/Sleeping-Bags/Fahrenheit/Fahrenheit-mammoth-20.htm
Flannel lined and full of about 5 inches of cotton, it’s heavenly and almost too warm as far as I am concerned. Add to that a waterproofed canvas blanket that Erik made that goes on the top of everything and seals us in, we now keep dry no matter the weather.
Nothing keeps the wind from us however, and when it comes roaring in like a freight train, we feel it. Even more than that, we hear it. We had a friend stay the night the other night (who has not taken the sleepoutside365 pledge as we have) and she was open to spending the night outside with us on the bed normally reserved for the kids. We got into our beds and assured ourselves that she was warm and Erik and I were sawing logs within minutes (as we usually are when getting into bed.) She was not so lucky however, and lay awake for hours, only getting out of bed to go inside to the guest room around 3:30 when the winds came a howling. I woke too, and lay there, listening, feeling... waiting. I could hear it as it appraoched, coming from down valley and picking up speed as it got closer. It’s the craziest thing really, waiting for the wind. There are moments when it is so quiet outside it sounds like all noise has been sucked out of the universe. It‘s so quiet, it’s loud if you know what I mean. There’s a weight to the quiet. And then, in the distance you begin to hear it. A dull roar if you will, getting louder by the second. Like a ringing in your ears. And then it’s on you! I swear to myself that we will wake to utter chaos on the porch. Sometimes it does rearrange the furniture. And a few weeks back it even sucked out one of the storms windows from the second floor. And that’s the thing... it ‘s almost louder when we are inside. The walls shake, the windows bow in, it’s aggravating and makes my heart race. But laying out there, in it, tucked in with Erik and the dogs it’s a whole other world. Instead of agitation I feel adrinaline. Instead of noice, I hear music, or stories. It ‘s beautiful and big all at once. And then as quickly as it came, there are times it simply moves on, and we’re left with the heaviness of the quiet. The stillness of the night.
Once again, it’s nights like this one, shared with a friend who’s hearty as shit and has lots of grit, that I realize our love for sleeping outside is truly just that. OURS.
It’s hard to get a good image of the bed and our view, but this does an alright job.