This past weekend was, thankfully, pretty chill.
After weekends spent paddle boarding… and paddle boarding… and paddle boarding…
…and working on fire… after fire…
…I needed a break.
So, I spent this weekend doing nothing taxing and everything relaxing.
That means running our local urban trail system with Yukon. And taking (not teaching!) classes at the yoga studio. And going to the farmers market. And reading (and FINALLY finishing!) a book. And cooking.
And… learning how to knit!
YEEESSSSHHHHHH. I’m finally getting around to writing this one.
I wanna preface this by saying: Monsoons have arrived and fire restrictions have lifted (for the most part) here in northern Arizona and our local fire season is effectively over.
Fire season here in the Southwest works a little differently than fire season in the rest of the American West. Here in Arizona (and New Mexico), our spring starts out warm and dry. We have cooler nights up here at 7,000 feet, but humidity is very low, and a historic 1,200-year drought has exacerbated the lack of moisture here.
We deal with hot, sunny, dry days in April, May and June, and then once July hits — we get monsoonal rains, which typically end our fire season.
Of course, this is all climate-dependent, and due to the drought, the last few monsoon seasons in Flagstaff haven’t been as wet as normal.
Anyway. Our season got started WAY early this year with the Tunnel Fire that broke out back in April.
Once the Tunnel Fire was fully contained, we were still all holding our breath waiting for rain.
And… then instead, a few weeks later, we got the Pipeline Fire.
Ryan and I (OK, entirely Ryan) finally got around to bringing a long-discussed project to fruition.
We built a deck in our side yard!
I’m now several paddle trips in with my new inflatable stand-up paddle board and I’m having a hard time believing I had to sell myself SO hard on buying it.
I’ve taken it out a good half-dozen times now: Both on weekday sunset cruises around Lake Mary, and on some longer weekend excursions! I went to East Clear Creek right before the Pipeline/Haywire/Double fires broke out (seriously, more on that later I swear) and spent this past weekend up at Lake Powell.
WELL. Haven’t done one of these in a hot second.
Thought I’d take a blog post to return to my quarterly trend of recapping all those little moments that ended up stuck in my phone camera roll because they weren’t deemed worthy enough of an actual blog post.
So, keep reading to see a few under-the-radar things that happened in my work and personal life over the last four months. Here are a few of the miscellaneous things I bought, trails I hiked, meals I cooked, books I read and people I saw this past spring.
So, I got my Red Card!
Which reminded me… you guys probably have NO idea what a Red Card is.
And… you probably have NO idea what I’m talking about half the time when I recap my Forest Service PIO (huh!?) experiences on Type 1 incidents (what!?) like the Backbone Fire and the Tunnel Fire.
Ah, the joys of working for the government!
During my stint in the Peace Corps, I ended up writing a quick blog post explaining all the acronyms, initialisms, slang and jargon I commonly used during my service… and here on my blog.
So, I’m going to do the same for my current job.
This one’s a long one.
Heheehe I’m back to let you all know that I still wear the same pair of Prana hiking pants.
Every day.
Kidding.
Kind of.
I’m in the process of revamping my “Things Randi Likes” page to include all of the things I wear on a weekly basis — my Danner hiking boots, Prana hiking pants, Lululemon Energy bras and Luxtreme Wunder Under leggings (RIP), Patagonia base layers, etc.
I just got a lil distracted by fire season… hope it’s understandable!
Which means… I have to get a little more creative now because I can’t simply cycle through the seasons going like “mhm yes, Birkenstocks and Lululemon Sculpt tanks this summer, Timbs and Levis Wedgie jeans this winter.” Oh no. I have to find NEW things to wear.
So. Without further ado!
If you’re a northern Arizona resident with a paddle board, kayak, pack raft… any kind of recreational watercraft, odds are pretty high that you’ve been to Clear Creek Reservoir.
(Hey, have I mentioned that I bought a new inflatable paddle board?)
Riiiight before the Pipeline/Haywire/Double Fire complex broke out on my forest (more on that later), I had the chance to head on a day trip to Clear Creek with a few of my friends. It was (unsurprisingly) a blast.
I’ve been a little hesitant to post about this because, well, what if everything goes wrong… but so far (fingers crossed) we’ve gotten seedlings started and transplanted, and some crops are taking off!
Which means… we have a garden!
I first tried paddle boarding (and paddle board yoga) during my unemployed summer in Michigan while I was looking for anything and everything COVID-safe to entertain myself with.
I fell in love IMMEDIATELY, and would have bought a paddle board right away if it were not for the pesky logistical things like… yunno, planning my move to an apartment. In Arizona. With little room to store a paddle board and few places to actually take said paddle board.
My two really good friends Vandy and Breanna, who live in Seattle, bought paddle boards sometime around the start of the pandemic, too, and seeing their constant social media posts around all the lakes, sounds and bays in Seattle did absolutely nothing to dissuade me.
So, after almost two full years of indecision, I finally pulled the trigger and bought myself a brand new inflatable stand-up paddle board (iSUP) earlier this month!
