Cocktail time

It's always cocktail hour at the Alligator Teardrop Lounge. Here I'm shaking up some Tomato Zingers.

-Amelia

Cranberry Lake & hatch awning

Great 8'x10' nylon tarp I got at LL bean. So much better than the loud crinkly ones you find at hardware stores.

Quick to put up - I installed 2 eyebolts on the roof trim for tie downs and staked the rest.

-Leah

Pass the muffins

Coffee and homemade blueberry muffins and silence and awesome chairs at Cranberry Lake State Campground in the Adirondacks.

Solar

My relationship with 12 volts has officially begun.

Starting with one panel and will probably end up with three.

Oh, and it works - charges the battery right up!

Sweet.

-Leah

Best. Chairs. Ever.

So I decided I needed a pair of those retro plastic-weave aluminum folding chairs for our excursions. Which meant, of course, that I couldn't find them anywhere. Well, Leah found some online on eBay for $50-$80 a pair, but they were awfully expensive for chairs that had molded over the years to someone elses' butts.

The day before we left for the Adirondacks, I was driving to work and I passed a once-a-month flea market at the antique barn. OMG. There were my chairs. (insert chorus of heavenly angels here.) I pulled in and asked the woman at the table, "How much?"

"Those aren't for sale," she said. In fact, a purse and a cup of coffee sat beneath one, and a change box under the other. "We sit on those at our flea markets." She gestured to her husband who was chatting at a nearby table. My face fell.

"But I suppose we would consider selling them if the price was right," she said.

"And I would consider buying them if the price was right," I said cautiously. I examined their condition out of the corner of my eye as I calculated how much would be too much. Maybe I'd pay $30 for the pair. Probably not $40. But maybe. They had rust on them, but they had clearly been re-webbed . And I really wanted these chairs.

"How's $5 each?" the woman said.

"Great!" I said. I quickly handed her a $10 bill, shoved the chairs into the back of my car, and sped off before she could change her mind, and before her husband showed up to protest.

-Amelia Sauter

Accessories

Sand seems to be a recurring theme no matter if you camp in the mountains or by the water so I built some wooden mats.

-Leah