Living Off the Land...

A few weeks ago, we got a phone call from Jake on a Friday night, asking if he could stay at his hut and have dinner.  I guess they had built a fire and wanted to roast hot dogs.  I told him he could, and then he came home telling tales of his awesome hut down by the river.  The next morning, we got an early morning phone call inviting Jake to go down to the hut and have breakfast.  He packed up a few granola bars and was out the door.  I didn't see him again until dark.  I'm serious.  I was making bread that day, so I just kind of let him be out there without checking on him.  I had Allie search for him at lunch time and she came home to tell me that he was at the hut.  Then,  I got busy with the chaos that is life here, and didn't check on him until 6 when it was time for dinner.  He got an ear full of how he needs to come check in now and then, or at least come in for lunch.  He felt bad, but said that he had just lost track of time.  I guess they cooked their breakfast on the fire, then caught a few fish in the river and cooked them for lunch.  Then, they were going to have hot dogs for dinner again, but Jake doesn't love hot dogs, so he thought he'd come home and see what we were having.   I wanted to be mad at him for being gone all day, but I also thought it was so cool that I didn't waste too much time being mad.  These boys live the life...

 When I went out a few days later to check out the "hut", I was expecting something cool.  I expected, something to show for all the days of spending time "working on the hut".  I was surprised to find that it isn't really all that cool.  They have a few logs that span the river so they can cross over to this muddy bank.  Then they have a few logs and chairs to sit on...and that's about it.  I'm told that they have something to lay under now, in case it rains.  They want to sleep there, but I'm thinking that I'll put my foot down on that for sure.  All it will take is for one person to roll over and they'd all wake up in the river soaking wet.  They sure think it's cool though.

 ...so does Nate.  He wants to hang out with the big boys, but it's just too close to the water for me.  I'm sure he'd be fine with it as low as it is right now, but he's still a bit too young to hang out with these rough and tough, fish catching, fire making, living off the land, crazy boys.