Aloha everyone,

We just got back from our July family camping trip. All told, six families plus one that just popped in for lunch.

We had a beautiful full moon last night that we enjoyed in front of a nice fire after the kids were put to sleep.

The food was great. We had three whole chickens roasted in a bed of coals from our camp fire, salad, fruit and rice for dinner the first night, plus s'mores for dessert. We had pancakes, bacon, fruit and breakfast MRE's for breakfast. The hot dogs cooked on the fire plus lunch MRE's for lunch. One of the families brought a couple of cases of MRE's for us to try. Then we started simmering chili on the fire from after lunch until dinner time. MMMMM! Delicious. Dinner was chili, rice, pasta salad, home made corn bread and fruit. Of course, the kids of all ages wanted s'mores for dessert again. Breakfast was pancake, eggs, bacon, Portuguese sausage and fruits.

And anywhere in between, we had instant noodles, fruit including chilled watermelon, home made cookies, more cookies, etc.

We had cowboy coffee for the adults as well as the obligatory cups of tea and hot chocolate for the kids. I can't remember what else we consumed.

The weather was hot and humid, cooling off only later into the night. We had some drive by showers too. They blew in hard and fast.

We continue to have pig sightings, but no real close encounters. Nothing closer than 30-40 feet. But I did recognize the pig that I had a run in with last time.

I tried out a traditional sling for the first time and realized how much I truly suck at it.

I spent some time with various groups of kids with fire making. They were mainly pyro's! But I did go over fire safety rules with them that they had to obey. Only fire mishap was when I was adding wood to one of the kids' fires, some kid took the moment I had my face near the fire to stir it up from opposite me. I breathed in a good lungful of smoke and ash and my sinuses and throat have been bothering me since.

And unfortunately, one of the guys cut himself with my ax. It rained hard this morning and our wood got soaked. So as we were getting ready for the fire, one of the dads was splitting wood and I was making feather sticks. As I was making feather stick, my fellow camping dad says to me, "I think I hurt myself." He was kind of clenching his fist. So I ask him, "Is it bad?" He replies, "Yeah, I think it is."

He almost took of the tip of his index finger. So we get him cleaned and patched and I sent him back to splitting logs. Actually, his wife drove him to the hospital. She did say after that the ER doctor said the bandage job was top notch. So I pat myself on the back and feel guilty doing so. He got stitched up and is resting on drugs but still in pain. And he did tell me, "Oh yeah, sure ax is pretty sharp!"

Anyway, I will try and post some pictures later. I was pretty busy so I didn't take any myself. I have to see what my wife and the other folks took.