Summer of Camping - Yellowstone Lake State Park

Faelyn straddles the line between Wisconsin and Ilinois.

Our family just got into camping in the last year and this year we are visiting four different campgrounds in Wisconsin. Our first trip was to Yellowstone Lake State Park.  Yes, there is a Yellowstone Lake in WISCONSIN. It was lovely and we were with lovely people, one other family of longtime (pre-kid!) friends.

Elaine with the Mug and Me with the glass.

Pros:

• Awesome bat viewing. They came out at sundown and we had hundreds swooping around, eating mosquitoes and enchanting the children and adults. 
• Therefore, very few mosquitoes found their way to my skin. 
• Awesome fireflies. All over the place like Christmas lights in the trees. 
• Canoe/Kayak rental on site was easy, accessible and the kayaking was fun, and pretty easy while still being a decent workout. 
• Swim beach - totally not yucky, warm, sandy well defined area and fairly large swimbeach. Not stinky. 
• It was just really pretty. 
• Nice easy hikes for littles - we had a 3,5,6, and 9 year old with us. 
• No civilization noise. People, yes, traffic? No.  

No rain! This view above my bed! Lovely!

Cons

• Pit toilets. There was a shower room, but even those toilets were non-flushable and there was no running water for tooth-brushing. We were mostly ok with this, but our 9 year old did not like it. Nope. Not at all. 
• No Wi-fi. Now, its totally ok to be disconnected from the world, and, had I known, I would have printed google maps to get us back home at the end of the run. The most worrisome part about remote campsites is getting back to the interstate. We got lucky with our memories on the way home. My phone ran out of juice and I have few pictures. But it was also totally ok to be out of touch. Maybe I should move this to the Pros? 
• No wagons for walk-in site. We aren't backpacking. We are car-camping with a young family and that means STUFF. Most of the other campgrounds I have been to that have walk in sites also offer wagons. So... there was a lot more to set up and breakdown than I would have liked and we forgot to put all of our food away. A racoon ran off with a bag of corn chips. 

Overall, I would totally go to this one again. It was about a three-hour drive from our place in Chicago, and the pros totally outweighed the cons. I might pack a bit differently or reserve a different type of site, but nothing really surpasses the amazing bat experience and the lovely sounds of the woods.  And of course, these gorgeous kids. 

 

Faelyn 9, Julia 2, Ben 5, Lenora 6. Mine are the two on the outside.

GMO the ultimate battle between Nature vs Nurture

Believing in Science does not make me a traitor to my people.  

I am a Nature worshipper. Nature is kind of my religion. I am a tree hugger (literally), and find God in living things. 

Since I made a visit to Monsanto, courtesy of Illinois Farm Families and Illinois Corn back in April, I have found myself in several strange online and offline discussions. With family, friends, and strangers defending the science behind GMO while being accused of succumbing to the “propaganda” of the company. 

What a GMO is, is a Genetically Modified Organism. It could really be any plant which is cross-pollinated. What it has come to mean is seed that is created in a lab and then enters our food supply. It seems to mean that we are eating frankenfood suddenly (even though GMO corn has been in the fields for more than 20 years).  

Yes, there are seeds now in our supply that are modified in a laboratory. We eat them. The DNA of the BT bacteria does not enter our DNA and change it. Round Up is not part of the DNA of the seed but a coating around it.  Farmers are using LESS chemicals than ever before. At Monsanto seed bags also contain non-GMO seed and uncoated seed to preserve the food chain. (NO ONE believes me on this one, but I heard it from the horse’s mouth, as it were).  Nurture. Right? The process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something?

Nature has been modifying food for millennia, as have Farmers by selecting pollens and impregnating plants with pollens from plants they like better. This is NOT different than doing the selection in the lab. It is just more efficient. 

GMO Labeling NEEDS to happen. Any entity trying to prevent this, including Monsanto, should just stop it. It would solve so many problems. Federal mandate. Do it. Companies do it on your own. Just freaking label so that the Non-GMO labeling craze will stop fooling people out of their money using fear tactics and age-old advertising techniques. 

I had a very enlightening discussion with a Farmer among my Facebook friends.  She and I became friends via social media, we have never met in person and we probably never will.  We became friends because of social activism – advocating for the rights of breastfeeding women. Sounds pretty crunchy and granola right? Just the type of company I have kept over the years. Liberal, smart women. Women and men who embrace the freespirit and the back to the earth movements. Modern day hippies. (My most frequent nicknames over the years Hippy, Mama, Hippy Mama, and for a brief time Red). 

Turns out she and her husband are canola farmers in Canada. Canada, the mecca of my people. I asked her if they used GMO canola, knowing it was one of the few available to market. 

“We have choices for non-GMO canola, but we don't choose them as the yield will be worse. Farming is complicated. I just get frustrated as it is hard to explain all the factors going into our decisions, in a Facebook comment. We have spent years and years farming, and Darryl spends hours researching before making these decisions each year.”

I replied to her that this is what I learned both during my experience as a Field Mom (now called City Moms) with Illinois Farm Families and my visit to Monsanto. That farmers ARE thinking about it. DO care about it and ultimately DO have choices.

She replied that “It does kind of scare me that you didn't think that, before you went. I'm not attacking you personally, it just gives me insight to what non-farmers are thinking about farmers, and that kinda shocks and hurts me.”

As an Earth Mama, I respect the stewards of our lands – the Farmer. I respect the highly educated people who make decisions every day. Farmers are not Big Ag. This is a label we are using to take the human element out of the equation. They are people like you and me who make educated choices.

After agreeing with all of the science and arguing for the inherent safety of GMO products, I must reiterate, I believe that big business is BAD for our country. Bad for our global economy. Bad for second and third world countries who are being forced into a capitalist economy which benefits business over people. Monsanto is a Big Business. We need to stop likening corporations to people.

We need to get over our materialism. Science may take us there. Nature and Nurture.

I had the weirdest dream last night

Ok. So I started this blog to be about raising my kids in an urban setting. It's not been successful for me so I am going to turn it into a hybrid blog. Things I think, things I want to do, things I like to do, things I get to do, things I care about... and things.  I am not changing the name, but the basic concept is kids and things.

SO back to my weird dream.

I had a dream that I was going to see a show written by my good friend Bilal. https://creativecontrol2.wordpress.com/ (He is an amazing playwright, check him out). It started out fine enough, a stranded island play, and they were super excited because the Neofuturarium had just got running water. So it starts and there are three actors shipwrecked on a desert island, trying to find a place to survive, build fire, ect. Everything is wet. They explore further and find an abandoned mine.  I look to the left of me and I am sitting next to Bilal's wife, my very good friend Dana and my brother, Marty. We are watching the play and my sister Melissa comes in, except she looks like a cross between herself, her daughter and my good friend Erica. Just as she sits, the seats start to move. I am being pulled forward into the play. My brother turns to me, because he is now in front of me, and says, "This is awesome." I wrap my arms around him and the ride continues.

Suddenly I am ripped away from everyone and I am inside this weird camp inside the mine. The actors are shining light down on me and several bunk mates - one of whom is Dana and the other is my best friend Christi. They are smiling and talking. It's like I am not there. I scream "I am here. Why am I here", as if it had been scripted. I look into the audience and they are so excited for what happens next. Christi turns to me and says "Run." I start to run through the audience but ghosts and zombies keep popping up. I am suddenly wearing a back pack and carrying two bags and holding on to my girls who have appeared, lumbering through the seated audience. Ladies in fancy clothes grumbling about being hit in the face with my back pack. But I am totally supposed to be doing this. Bilal is over there nodding like it is all working out. I am not scared, but I really want to get back to my seat and finish watching the play. The play which is like an interactive Haunted Mansion ride but maybe actually an episode of the Black Mirror.

Weird right?

I should mention that I am currently re-reading IT by Stephen King (something Christi reads once a year), went camping for the 4th weekend, my friends have been on my mind and my sister is coming for a visit.