Column: Pothole Prairie

Isn’t camping great?

The reason people like to camp is that, while camping, time goes slowly. You can move at a relaxed pace, no matter what. There are no set times by which things must be accomplished. In fact, if you are smart, you don’t have any device on you that tells time. Just leave the phone in the car. Unplug.

Not worrying over time makes the weekend seem longer, more filled with memories. Once that tent is up and you put the bags inside, move at your own pace.

Lisa, Forrest and I went camping this past weekend near Morristown at a place called Camp Maiden Rock.

Camping always takes me back to various other times in my life that I camped. The early years of my relationship with Lisa was filled in camping trips in Washington state. I attend a big extended family reunion the first weekend of June every year at West Okoboji Lake that is called the Engstrom Campout because it once was an actual campout. And I remember as a kid going camping at the Wisconsin Dells and riding the “ducks” on the Wisconsin River, back before the Dells became so much of a tourist trap.

Today, I am proud of my son. I built a fire Saturday, and Forrest, who is 5, was of course immediately interested.

He watched me pile the logs and get the fire going. I found a poker stick, and he wanted to use it. I taught him how to poke at the embers, to turn the wood over and to bust weakened logs with a good tap. He took the job of tending to the fire seriously and demonstrated great responsibility. He didn’t mistakenly poke anyone or anything with the hot end of his poker. He grasped well how to keep the fire going but, for example, would ask for help if he couldn’t turn a log — instead of making the mistake of trying so hard at doing it solo that it causes an injury or burn.

This wasn’t some 12-log inferno. This pretty much was a fire with three or four log wedges.

Now, some might think it was too much of a task for such a little tike. My response is: By demonstrating trust, children gain confidence and return your trust. And self-confidence is a huge gift a parent can give their kids.

Think about it. The worst that could happen is Forrest gets a small burn. The best that could happen is he learns to treat fire with respect and to follow parental instructions.

The worst thing that did happen was he tossed the poker stick onto the fire, and we had to go hunt for another good poker.

We enjoyed that we could let Forrest roam without always seeing where he is. We knew the campers on our part of the campground and got to know many campers we didn’t previously know. Well, actually, I liked letting Forrest roam more than Mom did, but she knows it’s good for him, too. Trust and such, right?

And there was a big field, so if he walked out there, we could spot him fairly well.

What made Lisa happy was the new tent we purchased at Cabela’s. We have a classic four-person Coleman tent that when car camping in Washington worked just fine for Lisa, Alta (our dog) and me. And when we did wilderness hiking in the Cascades, we had a small REI tent that fit in a backpack. But now that we have a son and another on the way — you might not have known that, huh? — it was time to invest. We bought a 10×16-foot Eagle’s Camp tent, and we can even stand up in it. Better yet, it survived the blustery weekend.

Forrest is looking forward to having a little brother. The baby is due in September. No name has been picked, but watch for that joyful column when the baby comes.

Hey, what time is it anyway? I had better wrap this thing up.

 

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.