Hiking

We usually hike 2+ times a week as a family for exercise and to share our knowledge. As we hike we not only push ourselves to go farther and faster, but we also educate one another on outdoor skills. I am more knowledgeable about edible plants and Papa is currently teaching me about land navigation. We have a topo map of the area we hike in and Papa is teaching me how to find where I am on the map using known points and the features of the land. We're currently using MapMyHike to track how we're progressing and it's been nice to look back and see how far we've come. After Baby was born we took about a month and a half off of hiking, but now we're even faster than we were before I was pregnant, which is great!

When we hike Papa carries about a 50 lbs pack, I carry the baby (16 lbs) plus about 20 lbs worth of supplies, and Pooch carries 12 lbs. I love finding lighter but better items to replace the things we currently have, and light but durable versions of the supplies we'd still like to have. Our plan is to bug in should anything happen, but we have a back up rendezvous spot should we need it, and packs to get us there. Since Papa works a little over a mile away he could be home in about 2 minutes with a vehicle or 7 without one. Because of this on a typical day it would be unlikely for us not to be able to secure the house together, but it's always good to have a plan should you need to get away from civilization for awhile until things calm down.

Do you have any sort of exercise routine geared towards being prepared for an emergency? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Made in America

One thing that Papa and I have decided on is that we'd like to be more conscious of how we spend our money. Everyone knows that the economy is terrible, but we're doing our small part by buying goods that are made in America. Over the last year I have been working very hard to be sure that all of our major purchases were products that were made in America as well as looking for everyday things that we buy and switching them for products produced in America. This has turned out to be harder than I thought, I have yet to find cloth napkins that are American made, so for now we've yet to switch to cloth napkins. I contemplated sewing some, but I hate doing the tiny stitches that napkins require, but I digress! I know that one family buying domestic products won't make a huge impact, but it does help in a small way.

Baby

Do you know how many kinds pacifiers are made here in the US? Two. Luckily Baby loves Dr. Browns pacifiers and they meet the criteria of a.) made in America and b.) sold at a local shop. I thought diapering was going to be a challenge, but it turns out there are a lot of great cloth diaper options! BumGenius, Thirsties, and BottomBumpers, just to name a few are all cloth diapers companies that are produced here in the United States. We're lucky enough to have a cloth diaper shop that isn't terribly far from us that we can occasionally visit when we go into the city and see about getting a new cover or two since the prints are so cute! We have actually only just begun to buy Baby clothes as we were fortunate enough to be gifted lots of new and hand me down clothes from family. Domestically produced clothes are more expensive than their Asian counterparts but they seem to be a lot sturdier, so they should last through multiple children so long as they are properly laundered. We don't have a ton of extra money to spend on clothes, so I tend to shop sales and second hand, if you've got time to wait you can find some really great deals. Right now Baby is wearing 6 month clothes, but I just got 3 great 12 month outfits for 75% off.