- Joined
- Dec 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,812
Long story you can skip to the bold parts:
So I'm fooling around with Google maps, showing my wife the new street view feature near our home...when suddenly I spot... a forest preserve! Right by my home. Lived here 8 years, and never knew it. It's tucked away between two hard-to-reach areas: for me, it was like discovering an entire second story on your home you never knew was there.
And my goodly wife, of sensible stock, says "Let's go there this weekend and check it out." So we pack up the two boys and off we go! Turned out to be a decent-sized 3 mile hike around a river. Nice stuff--next time I go, it'll be with a camera. Some decent views, even if some parts of the walk got much too close to people's backyards for my taste.
The vast majority was pretty well away from civilization, so that was neat. And Little Watchful spotted a whopping mouse-sized daddy longlegs hiking with us, and Littlest Watchful spotted--incredibly from a bridge about 20 yards away--a big old bullfrog hiding in the reeds. Nice work! Gotta go back--there's two islands in the river that need to be explored, and some other interesting land forms we didn't get a chance to get over to.
Realization: I wonder how much stuff lies just on the periphery of our homes that we fail to spot because it IS so close. I tend to overlook these places because, well, they're measly forest preserves and not massive natural parks.
Review: An acquaintance of ours recommended Cutter-brand mosquito repellent wipes. Rather than spray or roll on, you pluck a little paper square out of the container and slather it on your exposed skin. Great for kids, it says, and because it's not a spray you can put it practically up to the edges of the eyes. And so on.
I DO NOT recommend this product. Although it apparently contains DEET, it must do so in a very low quantity. We were eaten alive out there. Littlest Watchful, the poor kid, had nine bites alone on his forehead--ironically, a spot I *know* I applied to him quite liberally. It seems like it had no effect whatsoever. Maybe these are okay for backyard use--and I plan to test that--but for anything with dark woods, trees, and water... I'm sticking with the regular repellents.
So I'm fooling around with Google maps, showing my wife the new street view feature near our home...when suddenly I spot... a forest preserve! Right by my home. Lived here 8 years, and never knew it. It's tucked away between two hard-to-reach areas: for me, it was like discovering an entire second story on your home you never knew was there.
And my goodly wife, of sensible stock, says "Let's go there this weekend and check it out." So we pack up the two boys and off we go! Turned out to be a decent-sized 3 mile hike around a river. Nice stuff--next time I go, it'll be with a camera. Some decent views, even if some parts of the walk got much too close to people's backyards for my taste.
The vast majority was pretty well away from civilization, so that was neat. And Little Watchful spotted a whopping mouse-sized daddy longlegs hiking with us, and Littlest Watchful spotted--incredibly from a bridge about 20 yards away--a big old bullfrog hiding in the reeds. Nice work! Gotta go back--there's two islands in the river that need to be explored, and some other interesting land forms we didn't get a chance to get over to.Realization: I wonder how much stuff lies just on the periphery of our homes that we fail to spot because it IS so close. I tend to overlook these places because, well, they're measly forest preserves and not massive natural parks.
Review: An acquaintance of ours recommended Cutter-brand mosquito repellent wipes. Rather than spray or roll on, you pluck a little paper square out of the container and slather it on your exposed skin. Great for kids, it says, and because it's not a spray you can put it practically up to the edges of the eyes. And so on.
I DO NOT recommend this product. Although it apparently contains DEET, it must do so in a very low quantity. We were eaten alive out there. Littlest Watchful, the poor kid, had nine bites alone on his forehead--ironically, a spot I *know* I applied to him quite liberally. It seems like it had no effect whatsoever. Maybe these are okay for backyard use--and I plan to test that--but for anything with dark woods, trees, and water... I'm sticking with the regular repellents.
