Another Full Weekend

We had another full weekend.

Friday on my lunch hour I swung by Holt's Cigars and picked up a few stogies, along with a new pipe. The pipe wasn't expensive, but it's made of briar with a curved stem, and was made in the Czech Republic. I also picked up a couple ounces of natural cavendish tobacco, and smoked it Friday night. Very nice.

Saturday I did some more yard work. Cleaning up some branches which I cut down, cutting them to length and stacking them to season, taking down a small scraggly tree, and raking up a few years' worth of pine needles. I filled four yard cleanup bags with needles and still have a pretty big pile remaining.

Later in the day we went to a birthday party for the son of one of my friends.

Yesterday I hit the sale at REI where I bought a pair of Merrell Pulse boots and an REI Basecamp 6 tent.

The Merrells are very comfortable and fit like heavy duty high-top sneakers. I have flat feet so I'm particular about footwear. If they last me as long as my last set of Merrells, I'll need to replace them in 2020. And I'm not planning on tossing my old boots, they are still quite wearable but they are looking raggedy. I'll keep them as a backup and for when I might not want to wear nice boots.

My plans for the tent include family camping trips, and a three-day trip to the wilds of Central PA that I'm planning with my brother for this Summer. I wanted something a little larger than a 4-man tent but not something as big as one of those gigantic cabin tents that you can buy. It'll also become part of our emergency kit, just in case. Since our emergency plans involve evacuating by truck, the extra weight of the 6-man vs. 4-man tent isn't a problem.

I wrapped things up last night by participating in the weekly MARC club net.