Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! Recently, I have been getting into the Lego botanical sets. They are so much fun and very relaxing to assemble! They are available on Amazon!
Sean got a Mother’s Day Bouquet for me and I got it put together this week. He was originally supposed to be out of town today, but he came back early. He wanted to make sure I had it before he left, so I got it early. LOL It is super cute. They don’t die and require no attention once assembled! Win-win. We are grilling after church today, so we are about to fire up the grill.
We continue to prep for Maine. 57 days away. Last weekend we did a small hike at a nature reserve and spent the rest of the weekend prepping. We took brisket and trays of bananas, apples and eggs out and put in two trays of keto goulash and several trays of our coffee. It’s taking longer to dry the coffee, so it is still running and drying. Our work schedules have made it difficult to get prepping for the trip complete. I spent the majority of April out of town for the new client rollout. This month we have a week long management meeting in Ohio followed by a few days to see the Indy 500. As soon as we get back, I am out of town again for an in-person client meeting. Hopefully June brings less travel. Fingers crossed.
We also made several bottles of natural tick and black fly repellant. The black flies are known to be an issue in Maine in July. We used the same essential oils, but made one batch with vinegar and the other with witch hazel. I’ll share the recipe at the end of this post. We originally were planning on wearing shorts, but that’s up in the air. We’ve seen videos of several hikers who have gotten eaten alive by bugs! I think I would prefer to sweat a bit more than to get bugs bites all over. I may end up wearing the lighter weight Tactical 5.11 pants and carrying skorts and leggings, just in case. Once we get to Monson, we can finalize our packs.
Ear tube update: For as long as I can remember, I have said at times, “I just want to stab my ear with a needle,” “I just want to puncture my ear to relieve the pressure”. Daily Sudafed and other medications helped a little, but I always had fluid in my ear and heard crackling. The first tube back in December of 2025 was a miracle. It was a small grommet type tube that was placed to see if it would help. The first several months were life changing, as I think I have said in other posts.
Over the last 4 weeks prior to my appointment, the symptoms had returned and I began to hear crackling again. I also had some ear pain that required ibuprofen. I was happy to note that I was not crazy when I returned to the ENT last week. I had zero fluid build up for several months. Then, slowly it crept up. I thought it could be allergies, but also felt the tube might be out. Turns out, the tube had fallen out. I’m not sure if I mentioned that the last backpacking trip (Ribble Trail to AT) that I had some dizziness and nausea. I think this is around the time the tube must have fallen out.
A week and a half ago, the ENT inserted a T-tube into my ear drum. For this larger tube, the doctor had to cut my ear drum before insertion. It only hurt a slight bit more than the grommet type tube they inserted back in December. It has taken a bit longer to heal because the doctor has to cut the eardrum before inserting the larger tube. It seems to be working out really well now that it has healed and the swelling is gone! It makes me very excited to hit the trail in Maine with the higher elevations. If you are older like I am and have been struggling with life-long ear pain, got see the ENT. The tube is nothing short of a miracle!
I’d share pictures, but they are a bit bloody compared to the last. It took over a week before the blood and scabs were not visible in the ear. I share this info in case there are others out there who have gotten sick as they climb to higher altitudes. I wish I would have known the was an option much earlier in life. This tube should last 1-2 years. Yay.
I am still planning on bringing my lightweight chair with me to Maine. We are hoping that we can get a small test backpacking trip in between my Ohio trip and our trip to the Indy 500. Stay tuned. I want to see if the extra weight is worth it. Mighty Blue says it is! I have also watched many backpackers who swear by having a chair. They say it makes recovery each day so much better.
We combined a few recipes into one so that we would have better coverage from both flies and ticks. We’ve watched several YouTubers run out of repellant and it turns miserable quickly, so we plan on bringing several small bottles each. We will let you know how this works out for us. We also have bug nets to wear over our hats– this will be a must to keep the bugs out of our faces.
Bug Repellant Recipe:
4 ounces witch hazel or vinegar
15-20 drops geranium essential oil
10 drops cedar wood essential oil
8-10 drops lemongrass essential oil
8-10 drops peppermint essential oil
8 drops of lemon eucalyptus essential oil
6 drops lavender essential oil
My Little Red Bike 