Did your family take vacations to national parks or other outdoor areas? Did you go camping and spend a lot of time outdoors? Did you spend a lot of time playing outdoors? Did you help plant and care for a garden? Did you spend time walking barefoot outside? Did you like to lie on the grass? What was or is your favorite thing to do outside?
I grew up on a farm. Being outside was a part of my life all the way through my growing up years. I helped plant a garden, pull weeds and harvest the produce. We had a small orchard of fruit trees. I remember helping to pick the fruit. I helped to feed the chickens. Sometimes I had to walk to find where the cows were and to bring them back to the corral at the end of the day. My brother liked being outside more than I did. He liked to capture what we thought were pollywogs from a little pond on our farm. As an adult, he found out they weren't pollywogs but were a type of prehistoric fish. My brother liked to walk barefoot outside, which can be good for you except when you find a nail in a board like he did. We had a horse up until I was twelve years old. I was trying to get up the courage to ride the horse on my own when my parents had to sell the horse.
Our parents encouraged us to go camping with the youth groups from our church and with the 4-H clubs. We didn't go camping as a family all together, but my parents wanted us to have those kinds of experiences. We did get quite a bit of time outside. We didn't travel much or take family vacations, so we didn't go to the national parks or other outdoor attractions much. One place we did go was the San Rafael Swell. I remember Buckhorn Wash. I remember walking between two rock walls. We only did day trips. We went to Buckhorn Wash to get gravel for pouring cement. I remember seeing petroglyphs. We could see Cedar Mountain from our farm. I am amazed by watching videos of the area now and how beautiful it is. If you are interested, here are a couple of videos of the area.
My Dad at the San Rafael Swell
Share your memories of being nature to add to your life story.
