Ready To Be A Pilgrim
Our pilgrim passports have arrived from americanpilgrims.org. We’re officially pilgrims. We can now gather our pilgrim stamps in the credencial, twice daily, and with God’s help, earn our pilgrim certificate by making it to Santiago de Compostela.
With my packing pretty well wrapped up (See Preparing for our Pilgrimage) I’ve been doing some more practice walking, which has taught me a thing or two.
I’ve learned that 10 miles is more than twice as hard as 5 miles. I’ve learned that I’ll be miserable with a ~20lb pack. I’ve also learned that it is very unwise to go walking when the temperature is 99F. I’ve earned one blister on my right pinkie toe. And I remain conflicted about whether to take walking poles. I feel like they help me keep going when I might otherwise really slow down, but they also change my gait (hence the blister) and raise my heart rate.
On another note, this week I will say goodbye to each of my children as they head off to college. Both kids out of the nest off to their own adventures. Buen Camino kiddos!
Coming up this Fall, my husband Rich and I will go on a pilgrimage in Spain for 5 weeks. We’ll be walking the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. As preparation for the trip I have read a number of books and explored as many forum posts as possible to come up with a packing list. The ideal goal is to keep the weight of your backpack to 10% or less of your body weight. For me, that means I should be aiming a 13lb pack when fully loaded. To that end I have been gathering and acquiring items for several months, so now I am going to share what I think I’m going to end up packing.
Clothes
The main goal for the clothes is to not take more than is needed, to dress in layers and for everything to be wicking and quick-dry.
- 1 sun hat
- 3 wool socks
- 3 sock liners
- 2 sports bras
- 3 ExOfficio underwear
- 2 wicking short-sleeve shirts
- 2 pairs of long hiking pants
- 1 mid-weight wool long sleeve shirt
- 1 pareo
- 1 fleece pullover
- 1 wind-proof, water-resistant jacket
- 1 silk long underwear (shirt and tights, for layering)
- something cotton to sleep in? *
- belt *
*Not pictured
Gear
- Osprey Women’s 46L Kyte backpack
- Western Mountaineering Megalite sleeping bag ($$$)
- silk sleeping bag liner
- rain pants
- flip flops (didn’t make the final cut)
- Chaco Z/Volv sandals (open toe so can be worn with socks too)
- Brooks Caldera trail running shoes
- day pack (didn’t make the final cut)
- Bluefield backpacking rain poncho *
- 20L dry sack (in image at top of page)
- 13L dry sack (in image at top of page)
*Not pictured
Toiletries
- travel size bottle of of shampoo
- deodorant
- baby wash cloth
- travel size bottle of liquid face/body soap
- disposable shaver
- 2 travel toothpaste
- travel tooth brush
- travel-size floss
- tweezers
- nail clippers
- foot glide
- travel size sunscreen
- intense moisturizer
- small hairbrush
- head wrap/band
- bandana
- sleep mask*
- ear plugs*
*Not pictured
First Aid Kit
- self-adhesive ace bandage*
- assorted band-aids
- individual triple antibiotic packets
- tube of Advil caplets
- 2 safety pins
- lip balm
- 2 sudafed
- 2 anti-diarrhea tablets
- Q-tips
- Pepto Bismol tablets
- glasses cleaning cloth
- Compeed blister treatment (available in the US at Walgreens)
*Not pictured
Laundry Kit
- elastic twisted clothes line
- sink stopper
- fingernail brush (for scrubbing clothes/shoes)
- Trek and Travel laundry wash
- large quilters safety pins (for pinning clothes to a line or a backpack)
- 5 wooden clothespins (apparently there is frequently a shortage)
Miscellaneous
- iphone *
- super light day pack/shopping bag *
- lightweight glove liners
- baby wash cloth
- core-less toilet paper
- small microfiber travel towel
- money pouch (for credit cards/passport)
- super lightweight journal
- whistle
- binder clips
- sewing kit
- hand sanitizer
- hand wipes
- spork
- pen
- carabiners (including “S” type)
- head lamp
- 2 port USB charger
- 10 ft charging cord
- duct tape*
- prescription eye glasses*
- prescription sunglasses*
- guide book*
- very small zippered change purse (for daily cash)*
- gear tie (for tying backpack to chairs as a theft-deterrent)*
- a stone from home to leave at Cruz de Ferro*
*Not pictured
**Orange massage ball didn’t make the cut. Too heavy.
Maybe
- hiking poles
- cross-body purse (for guide book, money, glasses, grocery bag, and phone when not carrying backpack)
- printed name and address labels to share with folks we meet
Items to acquire there
- bug spray
- pilgrim scallop shell
Items I had to eliminate
- hiking capri pants
- heavier fleece (swapped it out for a lighter one)
- a 4th pair of wool socks
- ear warmers
- massage ball (supposedly great to prevent plantar fasciitis, but too heavy)
- flip flops for the shower
- a self-packing day pack (was just too heavy — replaced with a very lightweight string bag)
- built-in pack cover (removed it since I’ll have the backpacker’s poncho)
- extra straps on the bottom of the backpack
In conclusion — my pack is weighing in at 18 lbs, including the clothes and shoes I will be wearing on my body. It feels quite manageable but I may be able to have my husband carry a few of the items that are for the both of us. Most of the weight is in the backpack, liquids, toiletries, some of which will lighten as we walk along. Things I could still eliminate — rain pants, sleeping bag liner, some toiletries, clothespins, gloves? To be continued…
There’s lots happening in my vegetable garden this week – the carrots are out, I’ve started pulling my bulb onions, the spring crops are going gangbusters, and we’re finally getting some rain after a very long hot and dry period.
Last year at this time we’d had a fairly cool and wet spring, which really put a damper on pepper production, but this is a good pepper year. I’ve got lots of poblanos and hungarian banana peppers and quite a few nice sweet red bell peppers ripening. The first zucchini has been harvested and the yellow bush beans, which had a very slow start, are now producing magnificently. The black beauty eggplant has also set some fruit.
But of course, the main event is the tomatoes! I’ve now harvested the first 4 of the orange Flamme salad tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple plant is absolutely laden with large fruit and the Cream Sausage and Mortgage Lifter are producing heavily as well. I’m disappointed in the Amish Paste. It seems to have very few fruits, but maybe it’s just getting shaded too much by the Cherokee Purple. The Isis Candy finally has, like, two cherry-size fruits. So this looks to be a season of mixed successes with the tomato varieties. (You can see what I planted in my post Reap What You Sow.)
The good news is that the reflective tape seems to be working so far to keep the birds away. (See How To Protect Tomatoes From Birds.) The bad news is that a couple of the plants are showing signs of stress and/or disease.
So to address whatever blight is affecting these plants I went off to my favorite local nursery and asked for advice. I am pretty sure they have a Calcium deficiency (blossom-end rot) and possibly a Nitrogen deficiency (yellowing leaves). Well, the nursery staff also suggested that the yellow leaves are die back due to the extreme heat we’ve been having. At any rate, I purchased a small bag of Espoma Tomato-tone and applied 3 Tablespoons around each of my tomatoes (and my peppers too) and then watered it in well.
I’m generally pretty bad at remembering to fertilize or even having the intention to “feed” my plants. Instead, I generally rely on seasonal applications of compost and that’s it. So I’ve set a reminder on my 2Do.app to feed the tomatoes every two weeks. Let’s see what happens! I’m really hoping this saves my plants. Happy gardening!
Believe it or not, the first tomatoes are ripening. Not mine, of course, but some of my neighbors at the community garden are already harvesting Supice tomatoes. I’ve got green tomatoes on all of my plants except the Isis Candy cherry tomato (see my Spring planting list here), so it is time to think about protection!
Since I began vegetable gardening I’ve always ended up putting bird netting around the tomatoes, along with a few other deterrents, such as fake predators (more on that later) and shiny whirligigs. Alas, over the years I have unintentionally killed 2 large snakes, and last year two large (mating?) lizards when they have became entangled in the bird netting. Not only is accidentally killing these reptiles contrary to my principles of being a good steward of our environment, it’s really gross! I always find them caught in the netting after they’ve started to decompose.
Bird netting is also really hard to work around when harvesting and I have tripped myself innumerable times. I weigh it down with bricks and then have to move each of the bricks to get in under the netting for harvesting, and somehow the birds still manage to peck any ripe tomato that they can get at through the netting.
So this season I’m trying something different. I’m going to avoid the physical barrier and use scare tape instead. I bought this brand of tape here. I thought about doing this after a really dumb male cardinal kept flying into our dining room windows attacking his own reflection. While googling on solutions to that problem I saw lots of suggestions for hanging scare tape in front of your windows and also for using it in your garden. Apparently birds hate shiny reflective things that move in the wind. I bought the tape and tied lengths of it to my tomato cages and to a pole. I sure hope this works!
Additionally, I’ve got my fake predators – an owl and a fake snake, and I’ll get some new shiny whirligigs from the dollar store (these don’t last too long because high winds rip them up).
Additional ideas I haven’t tried yet:
- hanging red Christmas tree ornaments on the outside of your tomato cages so that the birds come to expect hard, inedible tomatoes
- suspending noise-making and/or shiny objects such as old CD’s
And finally, I follow the most important rule – always pick your tomatoes before they fully ripen and put them on a windowsill to finish up. That nice big juicy fully-vine-ripened tomato you were waiting one more day to pick? It’s going to have bird pecks in it!
How to live slower while working full-time? This is my new concern since I started a full-time contract position in February. First off, I want to state that I don’t regret making this change. I am really enjoying being back at AllClearID, a company I was employed at previously. I feel challenged and valued, both positives in my book, and I am earning more, which is great considering we’ll have two kids in college come this fall.
However, I don’t want to lose what I’ve been working toward over the last few years. I’m trying not to get back on that hamster wheel or fall back into patterns that caused stress and an unhealthy lifestyle. So, considering this, I am trying to stick to certain habits.
Menu-planning
I think this is vital. Over the years one of my top stressors each day was deciding what I was going to make for dinner. I now schedule menu-planning for Saturday and try to do a big shopping trip on Sunday. I don’t end up having to plan every meal because we have more left-overs now that fewer family members are home.
Working from home twice a week
One of the reasons I considered this new job was the twice-a-week work from home policy. So far I’ve only been WFH on Thursdays, but I’m planning to add Mondays soon.
Taking Mass Transit
Once again I have opted out of having a downtown parking spot and I am continuing to take the bus to work. This takes longer but helps me be “green” and enforces patience and tolerance. I can also start biking (my employer encourages it) and I’m going to try walking one-way (4 miles) several days a week to train for our upcoming pilgrimage.
Exercising
I will not sacrifice my personal training appointment or my Hot Barre gym class. I was able to re-schedule my personal training to another morning to accommodate a daily work meeting and I work from home on Thursday so that I can continue attending my Hot Barre class.
Keeping weekends and evenings open
Now that the kids are independent I actually have free time in the evening and weekends and I’m trying to keep it that way, except for social commitments such as church Supper Group. I have bell choir practice in the evening twice a month and have another volunteer responsibility for a couple of hours the first Saturday of the month.
Getting extra help in the yard
I hired a yard guy to help with the grunt work in the yard on a regular basis. Now I can enjoy the creative gardening and not worry about mulching, mowing, edging or leaf blowing.
Keeping up my use of 2Do.app
I wrote about this app in my post Finding a Daily Rhythm. It continues to help keep me on track and not let the house work get behind. It also reminds me of the pets’ monthly meds and tasks like turning the compost or watering the plants. The lists I have currently configured include Home (repeating household tasks), Grocery Needs, Decluttering Tasks, Home Repairs and Week’s Meals.
That’s it for now. Life is always evolving and this is just a new set of transitory conditions. I’m hoping to maximize the positive and remember what is important.
The final fruits of the winter garden are ready. Carrots, green onions and beets are now on the menu! I’ve got beds prepped with fresh compost and the onion crop is in (although it had a set-back because the grackles ate the tops off of all the onion sets). The heirloom tomato sale was last weekend and I’ve got some interesting new varieties to try. Here’s what I’m growing this year:
- Morgage Lifter – I had to try this large pink tomato just because of the name
- Cherokee Purple – very popular around here
- Amish Paste – I’ve never tried a paste tomato, so I’m excited to try some making some sauce with this
- Flamme – I’m hoping this is the Jaune Flamme I grew last year which produces super tasty sald size orange tomatoes
- Isis Candy – this is a cherry tomato with a cat’s eye on the blossom end
- Cream Sausage – creamy white paste tomato. How unusual!
For peppers, I’ve got the usual bell peppers, sweet banana, poblano (for migas breakfasts) and then I’ve got the standard Black Beauty eggplant. I usually plant green beans too. I guess I need to get those seeds in!
It seems like Spring came very early this year but I’m delaying planting the transplants until next week just in case.
I’ve got an update on one of my goals for the year -“Goal 4: Increase Income”. I’ve gone back to work full-time at a former employer and I’m really enjoying it. It going to take some work to keep striving for a slower, simpler life though. I’ll post more on that soon I hope…
I’ve taken a while to try to get my thoughts in order around my goals for the year. In the end many of my goals are continuations of last year’s, with a bit more structure involved.
Homemaking
Goal 1: Get More Organized!
To this end I have decided to follow the Home Organization 101 14-week challenge from www.abowlfulloflemons.net (Challenge guide here). I’m going to have to customize it a bit, because I already know that some of the tasks are going to take me longer than one week – but I’m going to stick as closely as I can and complete this challenge! I will get my house clean and organized and feel like I’ve really accomplished something.
Goal 2: Declutter!
I’ve added a Decluttering Task list to my 2Do app to help me out with smaller-sized decluttering tasks based on Abby Lawson’s 15 minute organizing task list (Tasks PDF here). These are smaller tasks that can be done anytime with minimal time investment but big impact.
Goal 3: Digital Organization
I need to choose a password manager and organize and reset all of my passwords so that they can be secure. I’ve put this off for too long.
Career
Goal 4: Increase Income
Last year wasn’t so great for income, considering I didn’t have much work in the fall. We’ve got tuitions to pay for, traveling during Rich’s sabbatical, and helping with the cost of a new living community for my mother. This means I’ve got to increase my work hours this year, without sacrificing my quest for a slower life. If I go back to working full-time I need some work-from-home time AND I need to have evening meals pre-planned and prepped. This means that I need serious menu-planning action.
Personal Health
Goal 5: Determine how I want to use my Fitbit
I received a Fitbit from Santa this year. I’d like to figure out how to use it most effectively. I’m currently using it to track steps, activity, and heart rate but would like to explore using it for calories, water consumption, and mindfulness reminders. We might use it for mapping our progress when we’re walking the Camino De Santiago in Spain next fall.
Goal 6: Modified Whole 30
I’d like to find a sustainable dietary change that I can stick with. The Whole 30 worked great last year, but I regained the weight, so I need a PERMANENT change like when I gave up soda one Lenten season and never started drinking it again.
Green Living
Goal 7: Use less Plastic
I intend to research and choose a way in which to reduce our plastic use.
Goal 8: Conserve More Water
I’d like to add timers to our showers (although I haven’t found any useful ones yet) and possibly replace our toilets.
Spiritual
Goal 9: Prepare for Sabbatical
I’m looking forward to planning our trip to France/Spain for walking the Camino and taking practice walks in preparation.
Goal 10: Altruism
I intend to continue knitting hats, this time for homeless youth here in Austin.
Other
Goal 11: Finish a craft project
I’d like to finish a cross stitch or knitting project started years ago, doesn’t matter which one.
