Baby Bear Turns 6 and Spring Sprung

Sometimes I forget I even have this thing, and then sometimes I get things on my mind and just want to share them. It's been a busy month. Kenadi turned 6 years old on March 9. She's learned to almost read anything this year. She's an avid lover of basketball, always turning cart- wheels, and making everybody laugh. I'm so damn proud of her.❤

Spring seems to be upon us with all the buttercups came and gone. Thanks you crazy Alabama weather! It's been great camping weather the last month. Thomas bought a canoe and exploring the forest from a boat on the river is a whole new ball game!It's a nice break from carrying heavy packs for miles.

And.... the garden is coming along nicely. Haven't killt anything yet 😉

Stay tuned for more adventures😈

Backyard Birdwatching

Birds have always been weird creatures to me. I have decided that they make great models for pictures too😊

The Blue Jays were making a nest in the tree. I counted 4 of them.

Not sure what kind of bird this is? I'm trying to get better at picking them out😏

A little makeup and Ibuprofen?

Kenadi has been so interested in makeup lately. I like hearing about what she thinks is beautiful. She's started losing her teeth and gets embarrassed when we call her "snaggletooth".

Makeup is defined as cosmetics such as powder or lipstick applied to the face to enhance or alter the appearance. It's been around forever. It can be filled with chemicals of all sort or war paint used by the Indians made out of berries, minerals, tree bark and clay. I'm not hating on makeup whatsoever!! The things people can do with it are amazing! But it's really a shame when you can't feel beautiful without it. I've never been one to be able to apply makeup to my face in a way that it looks good to me. I hate everything that goes along with putting it on my face and taking it off. I don't feel like myself with it on but then again there are some that don't feel like themselves without it. I guess it would be a perfect world if we were all comfortable in our own skin. This year I told myself I would try to go the whole entire year without wearing makeup! So far 2017 has been makeup free. Granted March is just now approaching but I plan on sticking with it. I want my daughter whom is about to be 6- and is very curious about makeup- to feel beautiful in her own skin. And I know that by teaching her while she's young it will be easier for her to learn. She will get smarter as she gets older and see the world for what it really is. I wish that I could shelter her forever from all of the bad in the world but I can't. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it comes from within. People find beauty in different things that is what makes everyone beautiful. Instead of sheltering her I choose to help her learn to find beauty in everything around her even when it doesn't seem to exist.

This year among a million other things I told myself I would stop doing I chose to stop taking Ibuprofen and Tylenol- among a list of other things and that I would get my anemia under control. While these are just little things they can mean a lot for your body in the long run. All in all they never seem to help when I do take them. I have managed to go since December of 2016 without taking any of them! I started an iron supplement, along with other vitamins, minerals, and probiotics I take everyday. I am amazed at how much better I feel. I have learned that those aren't the quick fix to your problems. I have learned that there are tons of things you can do for yourself naturally that work just as well for healing yourself. I took Kenadi to an orthopedic doctor two weeks ago because she had hurt her knee and I wanted to get an x-ray. I'm glad I took her because while they didn't find anything on the x-ray the doctor felt of her knees and hamstrings and discovered how tight her hamstrings were and said she put tended to put a lot of pressure on her knees. Later in life he said she will probably develop arthritis like her ole momma. To my surprise he suggested that he was not going to order physical therapy or for her to sit out during PE at school but for her to take TWO adult Ibuprofen pills twice a day for two weeks. While I am not against giving her medicine for pain I think for her age and given the fact she has never taken that stuff in her life she shouldn't need a dose to that extent.

It's funny the older you get what you learn and realize. Hell, it's amazing what you can learn after doing a little research for yourself on topics you're not informed of! I am thankful to be a free thinker and open minded to different ideas, views, and opinions.

The Saltpeter Cave

The saltpeter cave in the Sipsey Wilderness was used for mining saltpeter during the Civil War. Saltpeter is potassium nitrate. It was used for making gun powder. Today it is used for a food preservative and additive. The small cave is nestled deep in the ground behind a waterfall! I read that this was actually called Saltpeter Falls but I could be wrong. I have read a little about this cave and we've talked about finding it before so we decided we should cross it off the bucket list. Last Sunday Thomas and I searched a good 5 miles of just bluff lines because we weren't sure exactly where it was but we had a pretty good idea. We ended up doing a total of 8 miles when we made it back to the truck. We were bummed because it was getting dark and had to leave and never found it. This Sunday we came back and were determined we would find it this time. We made it to Eye of the Needle from trail 206 in about 45 minutes which is amazing considering it's about 2 miles there (if I'm correct). We decided instead of going through White Oak Hollow this time it would be closer for us to start right at the Sipsey River. We came up to where a small stream ran into the Sipsey River and headed up following it to the top of a pretty good hill...Oh the dreaded hills but B I N G O first bluff line we went up to- we found the cave.

Thomas and his brother Justin climbed down to the entrance and finally talked me into going down and taking a peek. I am not a fan of tight spaces or bats and this place has both. I made it down to the entrance and literally right in front of me at the mouth of the cave slept this little guy.  (I just want to note we didn't disturb them, we know they are important in the food chain because they eat pesky insects we don't like.) I really do appreciate the woods. Anything you pack in you pack out. No  matter what. We don't leave messes laying around.The momma always feels the need to probably pack too much when I go but somebody has to bring the first aid kit along for these boys ha ha.

It's probably only about 3 foot or so from top to bottom in the cave.

The sun was shining right in on us and you can barely make out Thomas' headlamp way down at the entrance of the saltpeter cave.

Thomas and Justin packing up as we get ready to leave. While we were eating a bite Justin looked at his map and said if we went straight up the mountain and over, Auburn Falls wasn't too far away. I knew it was going to require a lot of major effort and bushwhacking. I wish that looking back down after climbing up the mountain I would have taken a picture of what we climbed up it was a good 50 degree incline. It was UP and it got thick and hilly but it was amazing because we were so high up and had amazing views on the afternoon sun and sky and the best part was the fact that you could tell no people had traveled up on that ridge in a long long time. That's what we like- untouched wilderness. I found an old glass bottle that was broken that had been laying up there for no telling how long! We seen many old "roads" wore, a ton of MASSIVE trees blown over by a tornado and some HUGE hog tracks. We tend to follow the paths the hogs have wore a lot- or game trails I guess is a better term for it. Mostly everything good that I've seen out here is way away from the trails thank goodness. We came right out at the trail in White Oak Hollow! I was proud of them boys for getting us through there exactly where they did and I was so glad we didn't have to back track and were going downhill instead of up!!

While looking around the cave, back behind the waterfall nestled where nobody can see you sat this make shift bridge leading over to an old fire ring under a shelter bluff. The coolest part about this piece of wood that it's cut almost perfect. Someone had to of cut it out in the wilderness because surly nobody is crazy enough to hike that 3 miles into the woods. We hiked a total of 7.2 miles by the time we got back to the truck. It was an overall successful day in the woods. 

Rush Creek in the Bankhead National Forest

My Nana, whom is about 68 (If I'm correct), is an avid horse rider in the Bankhead National Forest. Shes been coming to the forest longer than I've been alive! She showed me the most awesome thing on this creek that most people do not know about. I always have my hesitations about telling anyone about what we find out in this forest because people today don't give a damn about messing up anything. Campers come from out of town and TRASH and disrespect the forest. Not all people who trash it up are from out of town but according to many of the locals I have talked to- most of them are. Anywho, off my soapbox. My Nana told me that many of her friends come to this creek to draw their water from. I was pretty confused when my Nana started telling me that people go have this water tested and it's safer than what comes out of our faucets. No fluoride, no chlorine...just pure mountain stream water!! With Nana and Kenadi along for the ride we set out to Rush Creek. There use to be a horse trail that ran near this place, it has wooden posts in front of the entrance blocking it from access. We park on the side of the road and start walking up a trail that leads into the woods. I pass by a tree with many carvings in it of people's names over the years so I realize this is or was a pretty heavily traveled trail. Within a very short walk I see what looks like a shelter bluff coming up right in front of us.

Upon walking for a very short distance you will see this and as you walk closer into it you will see this....

 A pipe coming right out of the mountain! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to whomever set this up! I enjoy coming out here every week and getting some fresh water from here. Now in regards of this actually being clean drinking water,,,I have not personally tested this water and compared it to any other treated water but I have literally consumed gallons of it. As a matter of fact it's the only water I have been drinking for months so I will continue doing just that! Just knowing that it doesn't come from a water treatment plant is enough for me!!

I plan to explore majority of this creek soon! I read that there was a geocache along this creek somewhere. Stay posted for more about what I find along the way!