Camping On The Beach At Lake Diefenbaker

A little over a week ago now we camped on the beach at Lake Diefenbaker with the dogs for the second time this year. This time we stayed for a little longer than one night; this time it was four days and three nights of lovely beach weather. What a dream it was out there... I can never get tired of spewing about how amazing it is to go outside in nature where there's next to no technology and nearly no people nearby at all.

During the last time we went camping we had borrowed a tent from my parents and during that time the zipper split and there was nothing we were able to do about it. So we decided to purchase our own tent online. This is the tent which arrived which was exactly what we were hoping for. We then proceeded to spray the tent with Camp Dry spray which is to help keep everything waterproof.

We started by parking a little bit closer to our little camp than last time which was up on a hill where we were able to take things down the hill and set up on the beach which was pretty pretty much out of sight from anywhere other than the water. The water level was a little higher than last time which also contributed to where we parked the car this time. We were able to set up our new tent in about five or ten minutes and from there everything else was a matter of sorting and finding places for things to go. Autumn follow me up and down the hill for most of the journey until she finally got tired and couldn't keep up with me.

Never have I seen the dogs so incredibly tired as I did on that trip. They were constantly running around and wrestling and chasing each other and anything you could possibly imagine to run themselves completely out of energy and then they would be so tired that they would sleep in the middle of the beach. I was incredibly surprised to find that they both managed to willingly step into the water at least once each. In fact, we were both very proud of Autumn for showing Furgle how to get around when he was stuck because he didn't want to get into the water and couldn't figure out on his own where to go next without getting wet.

Day 1: After getting everything set up and taking a rest for a while to enjoy the peace, quiet, and to rest my weary feet. We went on a journey through the water around the beach much farther than we had ever gone before. We saw absolutely beautiful sights and even got a video and some pictures without falling into the water or dropping our phones and wrecking everything. It was really quite a sight; I'll share the pictures and videos, but it simply won't do it justice. We found ANOTHER beach with not a soul on it which we wanted to continue exploring, but with only one pair of water shoes, we weren't able to continue any further without risking the health of our delicate feet.

Day 2: I woke up to a wonderfully quiet morning with no wind at all. Never have I seen a more calm body of water outside. I could have stayed there and stared out at the water forever, but eventually I pulled myself away from the amazing sight.

We finally REALLY got into the water and "swam". I still wasn't brave enough to go fully under water including my head, but I did make it to my lower chest and even managed to bring Furgle in as well where I learned that he's not too bad of a swimmer if he were only able to keep up his back end. We figure he would have a much easier time swimming and might even enjoy swimming if we were to get him a doggie life jacket. Autumn on the other hand is a fantastic swimmer and once she went into the water on her own and figured it's not so bad in there, she was in and out of the water like crazy as long as we were there too.

Day 3: This was the day all about walking around the nearby town or whatever you would call it. I'm pretty sure there isn't any kind of convenience store in the area, so what exactly you'd call it I"m not too sure. As with everything else in the area... it's absolutely beautiful there. Would I consider living there? ABSOLUTELY! Though... considering there doesn't appear to be a store in the area.... I'm not so sure it would be possible to live there during the winter unless you had the capacity to store A LOT of frozen and canned foods. It was on this day that we found out there's a public washroom in the park... huh... that would have been good to know a little sooner.

Perhaps this would be a good time to mention that we had come by the idea to go for a super long walk around the village area because the dogs had run away. I swear, you turn around and look the other way for a minute, and suddenly your four-legged furry friends are long-gone. This wasn't exactly unexpected either; they normally wander away down the beach or jump up the hill and explore up top until we call them back and then they come running. This time however, they didn't come running back; they were completely out of sight. I don't know if they honestly went exploring over the hill and continued on until finally they ran into people on the far other side of the golf course you have to pass to get to the village from where we were.... or if they saw a bird and chased it until they lost it and then saw people. Thankfully people are awesome and friendly and Carley's number is on Autumn's collar so the people who caught her gave us a call and let us know where to find them. It was after all of this and we had gotten back to our camp that we figured... why not go for a walk around the place and see what it's like here?

So other than the dogs running away for a little while, the whole trip was very awesome and super rewarding. We managed to make multiple fires using firewood and nearby dry grass as kindling as well as some firestarters. We cooked steaks, chicken nuggets, tomato soup, and of course we found the time to roast marshmallows over the fire. Let me just say, marshmallows over a fire is one of the absolute best things ever; what made it even better than usual was the fact that we had picked up some jumbo marshmallows. Normal-sized ones get that nice crispy outside and totally melt on the inside, which is of course pretty awesome... but these ones had an even better thing about them which was a gooey center which wasn't quite totally melted. BEST. MARSHMALLOWS. EVER.

Now I find myself getting ready to head out for ANOTHER camping trip. On one hand, sure I'll probably find some way to have fun out there, and on the other hand, I just want to spend some nice time at home for a while without feeling like I'm always just trying to keep up with the next thing that's coming up. Please please please oh world of mine... could you slow down just a bit after the upcoming wedding?

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Camping For Nerds ===

     This is the story of camping for nerds. Last weekend we went on our first trip of the year out to our favourite spot at Lake Diefenbaker where we did a trial night of camping. Surprisingly, this went very well and I would like to go out again for a longer period of time.

     We could have gone for longer, but we had no idea what Autumn was going to be like as this was the first time she's been out on that type of trip with us. Furgle had a wonderful time which I think was even better than last time because he had someone of his own energy level to run around with instead of just following us the entire time. We also weren't really sure how Isabelle was going to handle sleeping over at my parents' house considering she hadn't stayed there for the night before (though I wasn't terribly concerned about that because she HAS stayed for the night away from us before).

     So what is this craziness all about? I know, I know... I'm a NERD! What is someone like me doing OUTSIDE in the FRESH AIR??? As it turns out, even though I really like being inside in a dark hole playing games and doing whatever with technology, I also really enjoy being outside in the calm fresh air. Do I like walking down the street with a bunch of cars racing past? It's alright, but not my favourite. What I REALLY like... is going outside somewhere nice and quiet and enjoying the peace. There's something about the lack of man-made sound that really gets to me for some reason; really makes me feel at peace to have that every once in a while. I would gladly spend an entire day wandering around in a place like that. This is why we need to go back again (even if the water still isn't warm enough to swim in) for a longer period of time. Like... maybe four days next time would be perfect.

     Sometimes I forget that there's always things going on at home. Unless I'm relaxing and reading a book while everybody else is sleeping, there's probably something going on. I almost always have music or a show playing in the background or off to the side of whatever I'm doing. So sometimes I find myself driving down the street without the radio on and the window down just because it's nice to have some kind of getaway from the constant noise. Maybe that's why I like hiking so much, because there's just the peace and quiet of wandering around in the nice weather... unless I feel like listening to music.

     We had a fantastic time out at the beach; our special beach. The first thing we did was set up a 10-man tent which was a little bit confusing at first, but once we realized what was going on, it was a pretty easy system to figure out. We had time to wander up and down the beach looking for interesting things and to gather "firewood". Everything was rather damp, but that didn't stop us from getting a fire started anyways. It wasn't any sort of large blazing conflagration, but we did get something self-sustaining and it felt like a nice accomplishment... and the marshmallows tasted great.

     I'm already looking forward to the next time we get to go out, though that unfortunately probably won't be until late July. I guess we'll just have to get out for some nearby hiking and picnics to hold us over until then.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Road Trip To The Beach ===

     This past weekend we decided to go on a road trip to the beach. What a wonderful time we had! I won't tell you exactly where at the beach we went because I don't want to give away our special little place to everybody in the world, but I will tell you that there are many places along the coast of Lake Diefenbaker which are so calm and peaceful with nobody else around.

     I would love to post a bunch of pictures along with this post of our trip, but unlike last time when I proposed to Carley, I decided not to bring my phone with me this time. I'm pretty sure if I had brought my phone, I would have been worrying about what time it was and wanting to take all sorts of pictures and being distracted the whole time. So as it turns out, not bringing my phone was one of the best choices I could have made because it just made my trip all that much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.

     Honestly, I would have loved to have stayed there even longer. The water was warmer than last time; still a little bit chilly, but I was able to wander around without my feet freezing off. I enjoyed there being nothing other than the sounds of the winds and the waves to listen to while I wandered around and looked at the beautiful landscapes. I don't think I can explain how amazing it feels to be there away from all the technology and people and everything stressful in the world. It's just nice to BE for a while out there.

     This time around we brought some company with us. Rather than only going with myself and Carley, we decided to invite Carley's sister Tori to come along. The extra company was quite nice to have an additional person to talk to and hang out with for a while. Tori is very much like myself and likes being away from all the people so the two of us can happily be around and enjoy the silence for quite some time. I think I have a greater capacity to enjoy being outside to take in the peace (though I do understand her want to be back home where all the rest of the fun is).

     There was another guest we decided to bring along this time as well. Our fantastic dog Furgle got to come along with us on his first road trip. I was incredibly concerned that he might just decide to go run off into the distance or find a person and chase them rather than listen to us, but as it turns out he's quite fun to have along in the wild. He listens pretty well and even pays attention to us rather than wandering off the whole time. Our sweet Furgle isn't the biggest fan of water, so he spent a lot of time standing on the edge of the dry land and whining at us because he couldn't reach us. Maybe we're cruel, but we made him join us in the water a bunch and learned that he can swim quite well when he must.

     I doubt we'll be able to go again this year, but maybe there'll be some time for us to go on a couple family hikes somewhere nearby in the Fall time. Here's hoping there are much more fun adventures for us to go on in the coming months.

~ Kyle Welykholowa ^_^

=== Engagements ===

     Recently I have found myself quite busy with many engagements going on which are making it quite difficult get much done other than work, eat, and sleep. As always there's so much that I would like to do, but I'm usually either too tired from driving or I have some sort of school assignment due that night. Although there's plenty going on to keep me busy, I have managed to work through some of these engagements, and have even gotten some to work out to my advantage.

     The most prominent engagement I have currently would probably be school. With only half a month left before the finals, I'm quite close to being done the course. I'll unfortunately have a class which I'll have to retake to officially have the course certificate, but otherwise I should be quite employable in a real office setting. As much as I enjoy working where I am currently, I need to work towards something better for myself and my family because we just don't quite have the funds to get through everything we need. We're really close, but it seems like just when we're almost there, something happens which sets us behind again. This time it's a stone-chip which has become much worse than a chip. Just as we left to go get it fixed, we found that it turned from a chip to a crack which is just getting bigger each day.

     After school, I'm finding myself somewhat engaged with getting everything together at work; There's a lot of paperwork to keep up with and get on top of every day. I do however really enjoy my job. There are days when I find it difficult to get out the door and go to work and then once I get there, I find myself not wanting to make the necessary phone calls or whatever I need to do. I think if I were able to eat properly that I wouldn't have so much of that issue and I would be a much happier and more energetic person; perhaps I have an iron deficiency.

     The engagement I'm wanting to work on most is my content production. I've been so busy lately that my willpower to work on this sort of thing including my blog, Youtube, Twitch, and other projects (which also includes my garden) has declined drastically. I would like so much to work more on these sorts of things, but as of right now there are more important things to do. I'm sure I'll have much more time next month after school is done when I'll be able to live a more normal life not so full of things to do at every waking moment of the day. I keep getting the occasional subscriber or follower on YouTube and Twitch which makes me want to keep going. I keep seeing the numbers of viewers of my blog increasing over time which drives me to write more. These are things I really enjoy doing and want to succeed at without it feeling too much like work and without being exhausted all the time. I look forward to the day when I can confidently say I've truly done good work with at least one of these helping out in just a simple small way... even if it only pays for an ice cream one day down the road.

     The most exciting engagement is without a doubt the amazing news that Carley and I are ENGAGED! No seriously, there's a ring and everything. She had been saying for some time that she would be fine with a silver band, or a ring carved out of wood... or a ring pop. I managed to get her a real ring with a sapphire gem and get her out to Lake Diefenbaker where we explored the wild surroundings before finding a wonderful spot to propose to her without her having any clue about it before hand. She thought I just wanted a video of us kissing on the beach to remember the trip, but I then told her to wait and told her I had forgotten something. She had no idea what was going on and didn't believe her eyes when she saw a box get pulled out of my bag then get opened to reveal an actual engagement ring. It was such a beautiful experience going out there in general and it was made so much better by finally being able to propose to my love Carley. I look forward to our next trip out there. I only wish it didn't take 6 hours and a whole tank of gas to get there and back, but it's absolutely worth it. I wouldn't trade it for the world, and I wouldn't trade my love for the world. I'm the luckiest guy... in the world.

There are a lot of engagements going on right now and I can't wait to see how they all turn out. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa