Sending my brother off to Africa with a blaze

in #family6 years ago (edited)

Last weekend, I traveled to Hanover, New Hampshire — where my brother Josh and I grew up — to say goodbye before he departed for Africa. Josh is now in Liberia where he will be for 27 months, volunteering as a science teacher in the Peace Corps. To send Josh off in Steemian Boss Style, we constructed a healthy bonfire for all to enjoy:

fire-closeup.jpg

I spent most of the day of his going away party felling trees and constructing the stuffed log-cabin design. Also helping to craft the structure were Jules, Jiaqi, and Josh:

fire-builders.jpg

Around 40 people came to the party to celebrate my brother's departure and witness the conflagration:

fire-and-party.jpg

The fire clawed its way up to the heavens in a blistering inferno:

fire-underbelly.jpg

Other attractions at the party included bottled Switchback beer and a three-spoke hammock wheel:

hammock-wheel.jpg

My brother and I are five years apart in age. We played a lot growing up, building forts, competing in homemade olympics, and tormenting each other. I'm glad I moved back to the East Coast in 2016, which allowed us to see each other more often:

brothers.jpg

Here's the whole immediate family:

family.jpg

@jhimmel awakens on Steem

My brother created a WordPress Blog to document his journey. When he showed me the blog, I told him he oughta switch to Steem, since then there's at least some chance he will return from Africa having generated some wealth. Thanks @yabapmatt for advice on how to create an account for Josh using the Vessel Desktop Wallet. I created the account and handed over the keys to Josh, while he was waiting at the airport, using end-to-end encryption.

Josh decided to go with the handle @jhimmel. I was delighted to see his first post is live, tiled Here it begins… Peace Corps Liberia. I am sure @jhimmel's blog will be much better than mine, so if you're reading this, give him a follow.

Bonus

While traveling to New Hampshire, I slept a night on the Appalachian / Long Trail, hiking uphill from its intersection with Vermont Route 9. I was able to try out my complete hammock tarp setup for the first time:

tarp.jpg

Thanks Frozen from Outdoor Adventures for the great advice on how to rig the Hammock Gear Dyneema Fiber Tarp with doors.

The previous night, I was staying at a campground on the Upper Delaware River, which had no trees, so I had to resort to sleeping on the ground, with the following tarp setup:

tarp-ground-river.jpg

Steemian Boss Series

This is the eleventh post in the popular Steemian Boss Series. Previous posts include:

  1. Ultralight travel to Key West
  2. Sights aboard a twinjet, Philly to Boston style
  3. How to hammock like a Steemian Boss in Cambridge
  4. Glory aboard American Airlines flight 501
  5. The Centurion PHL Challenge: 8 specialty crafted cocktails
  6. The Delta Sky Club ATL Challenge: all 2 specialty cocktails
  7. Mississippi's best hiking: backpacking in Noxubee Hills
  8. Epic 80-mile bike ride to Limerick's Nuclear Reactors
  9. The Centurion SFO Challenge: revealing 8 exclusive cocktails
  10. A saga of 14 friends: returning to California

License

This post as well as its images are released under a CC BY 4.0 License. Republish or reuse this content, but please attribute by linking to this Steem post.

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Wonderful photos! Especially I liked the big fire. I did not see that kind of thing. And on the ground in the tent, sleeping is even good for health. If it's warm outside.

What a beautiful family you have ❤️
Having brother like you is such a blessing. Gonna follow @jhimmel

The long slow boring part brought the shortest but most memorable experience.. Brothers are something else.. the bond,and the friendship is quite uncommon to find in others...

A wonderful, memorable once camp with friends and family. Enjoy camping together on the banks of the river.

Best wishes to Joshua as he embarks on a great journey for a good cause! I will definitely check out his steemit blog! Thank you for the heartfelt pictures and wonderful storytelling. How did the hammock sleep for you?

That looks like a fun bonfire. How did you like that hammock?
*edit sorry I was looking at a downvote of someone who deserved it ;)

I'll be happy to follow your brother @jhimmel and his humanitarian work in Liberia.