Effect Essay

Take the Shortcut

Just a few days into my summer vacation before my 6^th grade, year I decided to go fishing.  One of my friends from down the road was visiting at the time, and so we decided to hike out back for a while and see if there was a good spot on the brook to catch some fish.  Unfortunately that day there were no fish caught.  We walked and walked down along the brook looking for a good place to stop, but after about 10 minutes of thick brush we decided to turn back.  Too bad we didn’t just turn around.  For some reason I wanted to take a short cut.  I thought that if we looped around we could meet up with one of the field roads we had walked in on, saving us a few minutes.  To both of our surprise though, that decision to try and cut corners and not properly plan ahead landed the two of us in some hot water.  My poor planning got us lost in the woods, made a bunch of people drop everything they were doing to search for us, and in some heat at home.  If we had just turned back around and head along the brook we would have met up with the road and been home free.  But Nooooo.

        We were lost.  And it wasn’t nearly as fun as the TV show makes it seem.  Personally the worst part of it was that the both of us had shorts on.  And that made walking all of those 7 miles through the woods, with the brush and trees just about the worst. I still remember how bad it hurt when I got in the shower that night, and had all of those hundreds of tiny little scratches get agitated by the hot water.  The most embarrassing part of the whole ordeal though?, the fact that we walked for five miles (the majority of our travel) going parallel to the road.  If we had just turned right and followed it for a mile or so we would have met up with an old woods road and been able to navigate back to my house.  But instead we continued on our path, until a slightly delayed stroke of genius hit and I used a compass I found in my tackle box to point us in the right direction.  From there we were able to navigate back to the road and get picked up by some local passersby that were heading out to the lake. 

        When we went missing, It didn’t take long for everyone on the farm to know something was up.  We were all responsible kids, and the fact that we hadn’t checked in with an adult threw up a red flag early.  So the search was on.  It didn’t take long to spread either.  In the usual small town fashion it took no time at all to gather a group of willing volunteers.  They began looking through the woods on the back side of the farm near the brook we had started at, but there wasn’t much tell of where we had went from there.  (rule #1, leave a trail)  Luckily though they also sent out a few trucks to search the local roads.  And one of them went down the very woods road we had been travelling parallel too at just the right time to meet us.  We met the truck about three miles in on that woods road, and loaded up with them to get a lift out.  Being that far in it took us a little while to navigate back out to “civilization”.  And in that time I found the most peace during that day.  In the back of a Tahoe relaxing after an entire day of my anxiety telling me to worry, worry, worry.  My body was tired, my legs ached, and there was still going to be more in store for me when I returned home.  As we pulled down in closer to the searchers I saw how frantic everything was.  I saw the chaos that I had caused, the heartache, all because of that decision I made.

        Although we did return safely, we had still stirred up plenty of grief in our wake.  And after all of the happy hugs and kisses and thank you’s, came the punishment.  My parents have always been really down to earth people.  Kind and fair.  They knew what I had gone through and how taxing it was, and were sure I had learnt my lesson after a “talk” at home.  I punished myself in a way also, because earlier I had ended up leaving my fishing pole way out in the woods after about an hour of being lost so I wouldn’t have to carry it.   But I shouldn’t compare that to Taylor.  He didn’t get off the hook so lucky.  His father has always believed in a more memorable method to parenting, hoping to ensure Taylor wouldn’t ever repeat such behavior.  So Taylor spent the first month of his summer vacation being grounded to stay home, with no bicycle and limited TV.  All for getting lost in the woods because of his friend, isn’t life fair?

        I still kick myself for that short sighted decision.  But to this day though it is still a great reminder to think thoroughly about every decision before I choose.  “Look before you leap”.  It still stands as one of the most important life lessons I needed to learn.  And I did learn it.  I’ll never forget that day I got lost in the woods all because I was in a rush.  And I'm sure Taylor isn’t going to let it go anytime soon either.

             

Process Essay

Northern Cooking

        By no means am I a master chef, nope no culinary expertise here.  But for the most part I can hold my own in a kitchen.  As long as Emeril doesn’t show up…   But sometimes you don’t always get that perfect kitchen to cook in.  Sometimes you lose a lot of those comforts that you call “necessities” and are left with just some odds and ends to work with to make a meal.  Well that’s how camp cooking usually turns out in our neck of the woods.  We work with what we have, and knock on wood, haven’t been dissatisfied yet.  It’s really quite a feeling to come into a kitchen at camp, and see the food piled high that you just made; mounds of pancakes, home fries, eggs, bacon and sausage.  All prepared on a tiny wood stove in the corner of a cramped 10’x14’ room.  What could be better?  Well, if you really want to try, I can show you.  But you’re not going to like it.  I’ll take you from gathering supplies to getting the cook space prepped all the way to cooking and the finished product on the table.  Ready, Set, Go.

        First we have to gather whatever supplies we need.  Most of the time it’s whatever we can get our hands on.  Sort out what cooking utensils we might actually use, and make sure everything is clean. (By the way, dishes with no running water are REALLY fun to do.)  Every time, the selection seems to be different there.  Sometimes we can find everything we need, and others we’re forced to make some trips back out to town.  After a while though we get it sorted out.  A fry pan or two, maybe a few mixing bowls, assorted spoons, forks, knives and spatulas, all to help the cause.  Lastly there were measuring devices, cups and spoons.  Now where did we put those..??  Oh well, we didn’t need them anyway.  Instead I’ll just grab some plastic dixy cups, and start translating the recipe to ounces.  Does that look like about half to you?

        The woodstove did not start out as my preferential cooking heat surface, that’s for sure.  The prep time alone would turn most people away.  To start I have to get a nice even fire going and let it build up heat as it burns down to embers, preferably using a hard wood that has substantial density, but anything works.  Once I have a bed of embers to work with, I add two more medium size pieces of wood to maintain temperature for the following 20 minutes roughly.  I then add a small amount of wood more every 15 or 20 minutes until finished.  Now I'm ready to get cooking.  I load up all of my gear on a table beside the stove and prep to cook.  By this time it’s roughly 90-95F anywhere on that side of the kitchen, and right where I'm going to be for the next 40 minutes. (My favorite part)  Now when I actually got a chance to inspect it in detail, there really isn’t much cook-space on the top of the woodstove I was working with.  On that tiny little thing there’s barely enough room for a 13” cast-iron pan, and maybe another 5” one.  No chance for two 13 incher’s though, and too bad, they would easily half the time it takes me to do a standard quadruple batch of lemon zest buttermilk pancakes.

        Now comes the fun part.  Just me, two fry pans, a gallon of slightly lumpy pancake batter (from scratch), and 93 loving degrees all to myself.  That little stove may have seemed to be kicking off a lot of heat for the cabin, but as far as cooking went, things weren’t so great.  There was some trial and error, but I got the hang of it.  By the end of the weekend I gotten it down to a nearly a science.   Pour in; wait for bubbling after about two minutes, and then flip and seer on the other side until golden.  Just repeat 32 times and you’re finished!  I'm sure if you can master a full pan flip you could make some seriously big pancakes.  After the pancakes are done I just cycle cooking in the big pan the sausage and bacon.  Lastly I finish with a big egg scramble loaded up with veggies and cheese.  Also I made sure and kept everything covered with aluminum, because it took so long to cook everything, the pancakes would have been cold by the time the eggs were done!

        What an ordeal.  Although I have to say I'm getting better at it, and it can turn into fun after a while if you get some help.  And the reward is definitely worth it.  Getting to see those happy faces stuffing themselves on good food you worked on is great.  Even more so when you plan ahead and delegate dish duty to someone else!  Bella my Chessy doesn’t complain either, because there is never a short supply of leftovers when we cook at camp, plus she is always quick on the draw when she sees somebody spill on the floor.