Sometimes in the life of an outdoorsman, or wannabe outdoorsman, there comes a weekend when you can’t escape the berth of the city. You are stuck at home and have too many things to do around the house or need to work. When this happens the easiest way to get your outdoors fix is to simply go outside! Yes, this isn’t the outdoors but technically it is the outdoors. Think of it as saving up for a bigger trip in the near future! The unfortunate thing of being addicted to the outdoors is the gas, gadgets and time start to add up to become quite consuming and expensive. Sometimes you need to take a break and save some time and take care of things in the city. Simply put, if the weather is nice you might as well go on a quick walk or mow the lawn to get your vitamin D dosage. I might sound like I am preaching here, but I have to sit down and tell myself this stuff every weekend where I don’t get into the mountains!

For those of you who need a little help on what to do with all of the nervous energy from being in the city here is what I did last weekend. Think of it as a quick and dirty guideline… or something like that.

1. Get your hands dirty in the garden. With summer fast approaching the time is now to start your garden. At our house we have three different garden areas. Two gardens for vegetables and strawberries and the other area for raspberries and flowers. The raspberries are having a very good year so far and some are already producing fruit. We have three different types of raspberries, yellow, red and black, and one blackberry plant. The yellow raspberries are doing the best and producing raspberries daily. If you are interested in growing raspberries I would highly recommend a yellow raspberry plant as they are very cold hardy and produce fruit throughout the summer. I’ve noticed that the amount of bugs on the plants is much lower than the previous year. As I was searching through berries to find bugs I think I found my answer as to why, praying mantis! I found a half dozen little praying mantis, see the picture below!

A praying mantis keeping a watchful eye on me from the heritage raspberry

Proof raspberries come in different shapes and sizes

Some blackberries getting ready for some picking

2. Get a hammock. Grab yourself a nice cold drink and get into that hammock. One of the reasons we bought our house was because of the two giant Ponderosa pine trees in the back yard. A great way to trick yourself that you are in the mountains. On the lazy days we string up the hammock between them and listen to the wind rustle through them. If you don’t have trees get one of those metal thingies or go into the mountains and put up a hammock there.

My wife getting some relaxing time with our golden retriever in/on the hammock

3. SMOKE SOME RIBS BABY!!! What else could make staying in town any better than ribs… NOTHING! Except maybe ice cream. Get baby back ribs, these were spare ribs and weren’t very good.

BBQ ribs on the smoker

4. Hang out with your dogs for a bit. Dogs are great. Get them outside and throw the ball for them a little bit. Sometimes I think I enjoy it more than they do. If you don’t have dogs watch some TV or something.

Our golden and half golden relaxing after chasing a green bouncy ball

If you are staying in the city this weekend I hope you have a good time and get out a little to work on that tan. I get to sneak up into the mountains tomorrow for the Bill McLain Memorial Crest Race. Laying low today, which means hammock time. Hope you enjoyed reading! Maybe find yourself a strawberry to eat.