Homebrew, Homies, and Life

I'm going camping the evening of the 26th of January on my folks place in Barboursville. You can't beat having 55 acres of beautiful land in central Virginia at your disposal. My family's land has a source spring feeding a nice, but small, pond. It has forests, hills, fields, two creeks, and even a swampy little area.

There is an abundance of wild life that lives on the property or visits it. Deer are commonplace as are squirrels, rabbits, foxes, and a wide variety of other mammals (there's even a beaver dam just behind our northern property line). Black bears and bobcats have been spotted a handful of times on this land and mountain lions have been seen in the vicinity not too far from our farm.

Geese, on their migratory route, routinely grace our pond. Hawks have had nests in our trees at times and can still be seen on a regular basis hunting on the farm. They probably have a nest hidden somewhere in our forest.

Many people when asked to envision paradise think of some tropical beach somewhere, mixed drink complete with umbrella in hand. Unfortunately they also picture a luxury resort hotel staffed by third world workers as a part of that "paradise." In actuality most tropical locales are festering hell holes of malaria, insects, and a million and one varieties of poisonous or toxic spiders, snakes, etc. Most of these people would never dare visit this place without their precious air conditioned room and hotel staff to wait on their every whim.

I envision my parents' farm when someone asks me to picture paradise. I imagine central Virginia with its pastoral rolling hills, forests, mountains, and fields. The red clay of the soil says "home" to me, and I kind of pity those who have to fantasize about far-flung places to envision a peaceful and rejuvenating environment.

What more could you want than what is all around you? Almost any environment can provide for humans and most provide for our needs quite well. I watch some of the survival-themed shows like Survivor Man or Man vs Wild. Contrary to what you may think, these guys actually seem to have some of their easiest episodes when they choose the desert as the environment to challenge themselves. Some deserts are truly desolate, but most will provide you with water and plenty of food if you know where to look.

Now look at an environment like central Virginia and the abundance of life and sources of food is astonishing. I sometimes imagine what it must have been like to be a settler here back in the early days of colonialism. Sure there were dangers, but how amazing this land must have seemed to people coming out of crowded Europe. What opportunity!

I almost long for this decrepit, shallow society of ours to fail. I dream of the opportunity it would afford me to completely redefine my life. Sometimes I hate the grind I am in... I go to work, I come home, have too much to do and too little time to do it. I barely get to see my kids many nights. I go to sleep too late because I am constantly catching up with "things" and then I wake up tired the next day to face the same series of events all over again. Flip another page on the ole calendar.

"Shorter of breath and one day closer to death," to quote Pink Floyd.

Wow - quite a sidetrack I got on there. Sorry 'bout that.

Homebrews, homies, and the camping trip. My first batch of homebrew will be ready for this trip, so we'll be enjoying some fine IPA as well as whatever my brother is bringing from his homebrewing enterprise. A buddy of mine will be coming along, too. He was featured in some photos from past entries (here and here). The eyes are redacted to protect anonymity, of course.

We'll hang out, bag a rabbit for dinner (my bro is the top chef in town), and then drink many, many fine and fresh beers. An excellent evening, in all likelihood. I love camping in the winter. I sleep so soundly, wrapped up in my sleeping bag with the sound of the wind all about.

I can't wait, really.