Small steps to a BIG goal.

This week has been random acts moving toward an eventual goal, or rather goals. I ordered my sleeping bag for my hike. I finally decided to just go with the one I kept coming back to every time I looked at sleeping bags. And it came today! I got a semi-rectangular bag with part synthetic fiber fill and part down. I figured I would like the extra leg room instead of a traditional mummy style bag. Plus, I like the color!

It is very puffy! I kind of want to just sleep in this it's so comfy.

I also tried dehydrating some dinner. My mom made vegetarian bean chili, what we always eat when we have chili, and I decided to try dehydrating a couple servings of that. The chili only used one tray so I also used up some apple sauce (flavored with some berry jelly) to make fruit leather and took care of the rest of a bunch of bananas that had been sitting for a while. I have not tried re-hydrating the chili yet (update: I did try the chili before going on the practice hike and I took it only as emergency food, it was not very tasty rehydrated!), but the fruit leather and banana chips are wonderful!

Chili top left, bananas top right, applesauce (fruit leather) bottom

I  also met in person a woman I was introduced to through Facebook when I put a question out to my Facebook network for tips on backpacking gear and a mutual friend connected us. We are planning a practice hike (well practice for me) for sometime in September. She brought most of her gear over to my house to show me what she has and to discuss what I need. She also had a mishap story of trying to reconstitute dehydrated chili and still ended up with crunchy dinner after an extended attempt at cooking chili. So I will be testing my ability to cook my chili before I pack any into my food supply.

Four trays of food dehydrates down to these three containers.

I have also been (slowly) getting more things made for the Renaissance Faire. (Read more about this process here.) Today I finished five new creature bowls. So now I have a herd (flock? gathering?) of creatures taking over my work space. I have a little more I definitely want to do for my theme pottery and some of my regular work to catch up on, but I'm still moving along.

Newest members of the herd.

I think I got to this point last year and got a little worried about not having near enough theme work finished, but I had a decent start from last year and I started making things earlier this year. So hopefully I won't have to stay up each night before the first day of the faire to finish firing everything this year!