One year ago today I started walking north from Springer Mountain, Ga. on the Appalachian Trail. Five and a half months later I finished the trail at Mt. Katahdin, Maine. Since then there has been a move to Indiana, making the new house right, working on the trailer in Delaware, a trip to Belize, a trip to St Louis, and COVID-19. Oh yeah, and the ant wars. More on that later.
I’m still trying to get my hands around the enormity of that little venture. I have flashbacks to moments on the trail. Mostly good, but some so-so moments. Just little fragments of time out of five and a half months. Physically, I’m comfortable where I am now. I’m really, really glad that I don’t need to hang my food from a tree for bear protection, and I get to sleep in a bed out of the rain with a roof over my head, and I’m eating something other than tuna and rice sides. But sometimes I wish I was still walking north. Even in the not so nice times. This is not something easy to articulate. I always feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be. That’s just part of existing on this hunk of rock orbiting the sun. But there are some places, at certain times, where I feel like I’m part of something larger. That’s how I feel about the thru hike. I was where I was supposed to be, with the people I was with, in the conditions we were in, at the time we were there. There’s a comfort there that I just can’t explain.
Springer Mountain Georgia, southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. March 27, 2019.
Now we’re trying to stay home, doing our part to fight the COVID-19 virus. So, how to be productive when you have lots of time on your hands? You learn to make cocktails of course. Lise gave me a cocktail making book for my birthday and I’m off and running. A major disclaimer here; I am not a cocktail drinker. I am a straight liquor person. I have a strong belief that if you must mix your liquor with something to drink it, you shouldn’t be drinking it. There are very few mixed drinks I will drink, and those have some history behind them. Where I’m interested in cocktails is the chemistry behind the blending of the flavors. Actually, in some cases alchemy, not chemistry, may be the proper term.
My birthday present.
I’m starting with the basic syrups and liqueurs what will go into the cocktails. It’s a process, from finding the ingredients to actually mixing them together. Who knew that Meijer’s didn’t carry chinchona bark, mugwort, wormwood, gentian root, quassia bark, orange blossom water, hibiscus flowers and juniper berries? Really. Ingredients you use every day in the kitchen. Once you find everything, there are specific ways you dice or chop or smash the ingredients and an order in which they are combined. Once the ingredients are blended properly, you put the jar in a cool dark place for a week or so, gently shaking the jar, every other day. I’m feeling like a medieval doctor. Or Snape, the Harry Potter potion master. I need to wear a black robe when doing concoctions.
Then there’s the ant wars. They invaded the kitchen and we had to make a stand. It’s the domino theory thing. If we let them have the kitchen then the next room and the next and the next would eventually fall under their control. I think we may have finally turned the tide, but the battle wasn’t pretty. As Sherman said, “war is hell”. We’ve reduced the number of ants traipsing across the kitchen counters to an occasional scout willing to brave the boric acid obstacle course. They are still coming which says we haven’t taken out the colony yet. It’s just a matter of time now. We’re now in a war of attrition which could go on for another couple weeks. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The battlefield. “We have met the enemy and they are ours”.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 