Sunday Surfing ~ Hand Warmers And Their Many Uses

I get styes...I get styes and I get them at the worst of times. Once I got an enormous one hiking in Sedona. What to do? What to do? I always carry hand warmers and a bandanna, so I wrapped a warmer in my bandanna and tied it around my head crossing my eye. It worked! It soothed my stye in 15 minute increments and by the end of the day it had gone down considerably. I bet you have a couple of unique uses for these little survival tools, here's a list of 10 more to make your life easier on the trail.

Sunday Surfing ~ Willow Lake Loop, Prescott AZ

5.7 miles of white dot marked easy trails with panoramic views...if this sounds like your cup of tea, this trail is for you. Three quarters of a mile were all that stood between closing the loop around Willow Lake and with the addition of this new segment you can seasonally make it all the way around. This newest part of the trail, the East Bay trail segment does pass along shallow lake bed which sometimes fills up with water, making it in passable for part of the year.

I am really excited about this new addition and can't wait to hike it myself...hope to catch you on the trail, soon.

Challenging Life's Challenges

Sometimes the shortest distance is the greatest challenge. Whether it is scaling a steep rock by fingers and toes or limping down a gentle slope with a grievous injury, circumstances often provide greater challenges than Mother Nature herself. And it's with overcoming these obstacles that we often find our greatest source of healing and release.

How many times have you looked at a challenge and taken it to find empowerment on the other side? Crossing the Grand Canyon, hiking alone into the desert for an over nighter, vision quest, or maybe just pushing a temporary condition past it's limit to prove to yourself that everything was going to be ok? We need our obstacles to have something to master, to prove to ourselves that yes.we.can.

Earlier this month on vacation I had a mis-hap that left me unable to even step up a curb without help. A scant week later I stared up the little mountain on Airport Mesa, wanting so much to feel the air on my face and gaze at the valley below. A gentle upward slope, trail cut with stair steps, only maybe 50 steps between the parking lot and where I wanted to be. 50 steps bigger than the curb of a week before. Walking stick in hand, leaning heavily, pain coating each movement, I slowly made my way to the top. And standing there, a desert breeze rustling my hair, I knew that somehow, eventually I would be ok.

Sunday Surfing ~ The Kitchen On Your Back, Aussie Style

I ran across this vid and was enchanted by the girl in it...she is just plain "spunky"! While it doesn't look like the Aussies have an secrets over us, she does give a couple of ideas that I had forgotten about (like searching Asian Markets). Give a listen and see if you do everything she does, and if you try some of her recipes, well, don't forget to wash your "billie"...

Sunday Surfing ~ Freezer Bag Cooking

Haven't tried this yet on hot foods, but I am intrigued by the possibilities :)

Where I've Been and Great Local Bulk Food Offerings

So, although I didn't mean to, I've been strangely absent from blogging in general and this blog in particular. I looked so forward to January...after the Holiday rush and deliciously cool weather to explore the Arizona Trails. This January though, something special happened. It seems that this was the year that I was destined to learn some new skills. I received an opportunity to be part of a certification program for an industry I have always been interested in and I jumped at the chance to learn a little more. Long story short, the program was such a success for me that I opened up a second business and, well, that's where I've been. Now, even with running two businesses, there has been some downtime and while I would have loved to go hiking, new skill number 2 came into being, really learning to paddle. My husband and his buddies have been doing it for a few years and I would jump in and sit off shore a bit, but this year marks the time I decided to really be active with this. So, between these couple of new things, I haven't much made it anywhere except a few yards up Thunder Mountain Trail in Sedona (which I really need to tell you about sometime because it was a short but momentous hike).

With all that said, I did want to share a special find with you. Winco recently opened here in the Phoenix area and I was really impressed with their bulk food section. They boast over 600 items in their bulk department and there is so much for us Outsiders in terms of dehydrated foods. This is truly a "just add water and your imagination" situation. My current favorite find there is the # 2172 Soup mix, vegetable blend. So far I've used it to bulk up dried chicken soup, added it to tuna salad and tried it just on it's own.  I've also gotten the dried refried beans, cheese sauce powder and based on how good these were, looking forward to making the dried grits. Along with having a huge selection of items great for the trail, many of them come with recipes, making it easy to understand the basics so you can advance to your own crazy concoctions. I highly recommend you check it out. Phoenix currently has two locations, both on West Bell Road. Hope to see you there!

Sunday Surfing ~ The Peavine Trail, Prescott, AZ

Prescott has such a varied landscape, from acres of grazing land (where I saw my first herd of pronghorn antelope) to the monoliths of Granite Dells. This vid shows just a bit of the variation on a very easy hike with great views of Watson Lake. One of the few Rails to Trails projects, this six mile trail was actually cut by the Santa Fe Railway in 1893. Take a walk from your couch now and plan to visit it in person, soon.