Katie and I had a lovely warm evening last night to spend camping in the back yard.  I was so tired that we went to bed at 9 — before it was even dark.  As I was gathering up our supplies I glanced out toward the tent and wouldn’t you know it, there was our friend mama deer, standing near the house, munching on a shrub.  Just waiting, I guess, to terrorize us some more.

After she left the yard we settled in.  Sort of.  Katie got up to look out the window at every little sound.  And there was a lot of sound.  Some township nearby was having their local fireworks, so there was the sound similar to distant thunder.  Nearby someone was setting off popping fireworks.  Two bugs managed to get caught under the rain fly of the tent and buzzed around, bumbling into the ceiling of the tent for what seemed like a long time.  The next door neighbor was in the backyard calling for her dog.  Forty-five minutes into our night the deer snorted at us.  Katie didn’t bark at any of it. But she checked each sound out.  No sleeping allowed.

Eventually we settled in to watch the fireflies and the stars, periodically rearranging ourselves, her on and off the mattress, me moving over to make room, moving again to reclaim my space when she chose her own pillow instead.  After two hours of this she began to whine.  I sighed and found my shoes and her leash and we went back outside.  She had to GO MOM!  Geeze!

Back in the tent things were quieter, and we both fell asleep…until I woke with a start to Katie’s frantic barking.  I thought she’d wake up the whole neighborhood and I couldn’t get her to quiet down enough for me to hear whatever was upsetting her.  In between her barks I could tell something was walking around out there, something small, making a cat-like sound.  Didn’t bother me much, but Katie was outraged.  Apparently a lot of night creatures like to explore near sleeping humans at 2:00 a.m. as this was about the same time of night that we were scared back into the house last weekend.

After about 45 minutes of on and off barking I gave up and we went inside, serenaded by very loud bullfrogs in the pond across the road.   Silly dog.  It was such a lovely night and I was enjoying my sleep in the night air. Tonight I’m considering leaving her in with her Dad and trying again.  But I’m moving the tent even closer to the house.

Cause I’m as big a chicken as she is.  I just don’t bark as much.

Most of you know that Katie and I camp out in the back yard during warm summer nights.  That’s a bit harder to do now that I’m working;  I suppose I could try it on a work night but I think I’d be a wreck at work the next day.  So we have to wait for nice weekend nights before we head out for our camping adventures.

We got the tent out last weekend, Katie and I, and put it up on Saturday afternoon for our seasonal inaugural back yard camp-out.   I tucked it way out at the back of our yard, behind a big blue spruce near the woods.

Just as soon as we were back in the house I saw a mama deer wander out of the woods and walk over to the tent, inspect it then casually continue to the neighbor’s yard.  Hmmm I thought, that was interesting!

So around 10 that night Katie and I headed out.  Me with my phone, my water, my flashlight and my dog.  We settled right in, she plopped down on her pile of pillows, and I snuggled in under my blankets.  We were asleep instantly.

Suddenly Katie was barking hysterically and I was clawing my way back to consciousness aware of some sort of alien noise.  A noise very close to us.  I grabbed Katie and held her tight and she went quiet.  We both held our breath and waited.  Then it happened again.  Three snorts.  Just outside the tent.  Katie wimpered.  I held her tighter.  We stayed still.  More snorting and a stick cracking.  She began to bark.  I shushed her.

Everything went  quiet…and eventually we settled back down.  But not to sleep, no we were both wide awake and on high alert.  Then as we began to drift off the snorting began again, on the other side of the tent.  OK.  That’s enough, I was envisioning some wild animal crashing through our little tent.

I turned on the flashlight, made a great deal of noise and Katie and I hightailed it back to the house.  It was 2:00 a.m.  I got online to find out what makes that sort of noise and guess what?  Deer do, when they feel threatened!  Who knew!?!  Maybe there were baby deer somewhere nearby and Mama was trying to figure out what smelly thing was inside the tent?

Anyway, it was a lot of work to set up camp only to stay out a few hours.  So Katie and I are going to try again this weekend.  I moved the tent closer to the house.

Cause I’d like to make it through the night this time.