Once in a Blue Moon...

Blessings.

Dutch ovens & other geeky pastimes...

It's no secret I am a geek.

I quite frequently share our geeky pursuits with y'all.

Greek tapes, donkey carts, lederhosen ....

Oh wait! The lederhosen wasn't us....never mind...;)

Anyway. We are dorks.

So it should be no surprise what I am about to confess...

As part of stocking our new trailer my husband fulfilled one of my long time dreams & bought me...a Dutch Oven.

So, in preparation for our maiden voyage next week, I have spent hours with my Dutch Oven Cookbook choosing our camp menu.

So far I have it narrowed down to Beef Stew the first night.

An Apple Cobbler the second night.

And Chicken & Rice the last night.

I have already decided that I need a second Dutch Oven in order to cook both a main dish and a dessert each night.

And maybe a third one for side dishes...hmmmmmmmm...

Dorky decisions, dorky decisions.

So, next week, after our trip to the North Coast, I will let y'all know how my foray into Dutch Oven cooking goes... :)

Blessings.

Check this out...

We bought our own trailer!

This has been on my 'list' for, gosh, 10 years?

It's super cool.

It's a '99 & I think it's 24 ft?

It's in really good shape & clean & nice inside. It has a queen bed & 2 single bunkbeds & the table makes into a bed so everybody has a spot to sleep! :)

And we got a super deal on it & it came with all kinds of extras like the hitch & tow bars & sway bars...

We are taking it for it's maiden voyage in a few weeks.

 A small, adorable child wished he could go to the beach sooooo...

We are (hopefully, barring complications...) going to camp on the Northern California Coast for 3 days.

We also have reservations for Yosemite the first week in November!

We have been on a quest to stock our trailer so that it is always prepared for us to hitch up & go.

A friend, who was thinning out her linen closets, gifted us with pillows & blankets galore for all the beds.

Plus a few pots, pans & other items.

I also had a very successful trip to the Goodwill where I scored flatware, kitchen utensils, storage bowls, a brand new Lodge cast iron skillet, steak knives, butcher knives, a measure cup, colander, & a few other sundries.

My fabulous husband went on a minor shopping spree in Big R & bought everyone their own enamelware  plate, mug & bowl. And a big enamelware percolator & another pot for water & a grill for the fire & a griddle for the grill & we are just about all set ;)

So our project for the next few days is to load up, stock up, & find a place for everything.

We are pretty excited :)

Blessings.

Church Family Camp 2012

Last week we borrowed a trailer, packed up our dreck & headed north to Family Camp.

If you remember from last year, I was not happy with the campground.

It was HOT, DIRTY, DRY, CROWDED & DIRTY.

Did I mention dirty?

So we did some research & found & different campground waaay further north (not hot), not crowded, not dry & not dusty.

Aaaaaahhhh.

It was a really nice campground run by a really nice lady who, by the way, is going to have open heart surgery soon so if you feel so led, say a prayer for Mrs. Friday :)

There was a creek for the kids to play in, grass for the dogs to run, trails close by & a super nice reservoir to fish & swim.

And no, no icky, nasty, red, volcanic dust.

:)

We ate well, had good fellowship, a birthday party & of course s'mores.

So guess what?

I have pictures!!!

Surprise!

You're shocked right?

Right?

;)

Here we go...

 

Adorable fishermen & their tasty catch...

 Check out the 'big one'...

The 'campsite'.

Happy dogs (we brought them inside at night so they didn't get eaten by the bears...)

Pretty girl

Smiley boy.

Nothing makes a 3 year old happier than...mud!

In person, this little guy was a bright, bright red.

Pretty, pretty scenery.

Wild black berries.

The master chef.

From the lake to the grill in less than an hour...YUM!

Wild raspberries.

More pretty scenery.

Majestic Mt. Shasta.

Seriously? Who could resist this face?

And while we were at camp my favorite 5 year old turned 6! So we had cake & ice cream & presents & a party! Fun!

The cake.

The "guests".

"Happy birthday to yoouuuuu..."

A cool dragon/dinosaur book ~ evolution free~ but what's that at the bottom of the bag???

Clifford!!! (look at that face~ that is a happy boy!)

So a good time was had by all, nobody was eaten by a bear, and me & mine were not covered in nasty red dust. 

Blessings.

Grasshoppers

We have experienced a plague of Biblical proportions.

Locusts. Grasshoppers.

Literally by the millions.

They covered every surface. Every wall.

Each step sent a cloud of them into flight.

They flew at your face & landed in your hair (shudder).


And they ate.

Their sheer destructive force was awe inspiring.

You could go to sleep with a fully leafed bush or tree outside & wake up to twigs.

When I left to go back East they had eaten my entire garden, the landscaping on the East side of the house & every flower on the place.

But we still had trees, rose bushes. artichokes & landscaping on the West side of the house.

I was gone 4 days.

Not only did they eat the trees, rosebushes, artichokes & landscaping but they ate our lawn.


It is just a dried out, shriveled brown mess. :P

Now that the food sources have declined by such a large percentage they have started to move on to the neighbors.

Now we only have 1000's instead of millions.

Everything outside is a dried out, yellow skeleton of what it should be.

Keep in mind, when you look at these pictures, 2 months ago all of these were lush, green, fully leafed, blooming pretty plants.

Not anymore.

Used to be a nectarine tree.

Used to be a mandarin tree.

Was my herb garden.

Remember the artichokes as tall as my girl? Mmmm hmmm. That's it.

Used to be a lush grape vine full of fruit.

 Was my lawn. :P

Were pretty rosebushes.

Used to be Day Lillys ~ just starting to flower when the hoppers came.

(See the sad dead munched on trees in the background?)

Trees.

 One of the 20 tomato plants we put in ~ the hoppers  sure appreciated that :(

More sad little trees.

So there you have the world's saddest Farm Tour of dead pathetic sticks, twigs, & straw.

And, in case you 're wondering, NO,  I'm not spending a whole lot of time outside this year.

:(

Blessings.

Eastward Bound

I made a pilgrimage back east a week or so ago.

I flew into Minneapolis, drove to Racine & the next day headed to Viola Wisconsin.

The addition of Wisconsin brings my state total up to 7 ~count'em 7~ big ones. Oh yeah. I am flying through this country. At this rate I may hit 10 states before I die ;)



It is so beautiful there.

Green, green & more green.

And you can't swing a dead cat with out hitting a gorgeous, fabulous old barn. (Altho why one would want to swing a dead cat is beyond me. I just figured it was an eastern thang...)


And I got see & TOUCH the Mighty Mississippi. Big deal for this Western girl.

After the farm tour was the urban portion of the trip.

2 days of window shopping & country club gawking & Mall of America walking.

And every night there was a stellar thunder storm with buckets of rain & wind & lightening crashing down.

In California there is NO weather in the summer. It's just hot, hot & more hot. No rain. No storms. Very different from the Mid West.

I may have taken a few pictures while I was there. One or two. Hundred :) I tried to narrow it down.

The farm I stayed at in Racine.

Did y'all know they used to grow hemp (for rope) as a crop in Minnesota? It still grows wild in the windbreaks. So I flew all the way from the Land of the Fruits & Nuts to find wild hemp in the fields of MN.

Pretty Holly Hocks.

The Stupid Loon. The #1 tourist attraction in Racine.

Just a few of the many, many, gorgeous barn photos I took on the way to Wisconsin.

The White Cliffs of Wisconsin.

The M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

Look! I'm touching the Mississippi!

Wisconsin welcomed me!

And yet, more barns...

 

These drove by all day. It was very cool.

The lovely group of ladies I went out to see.

Just waiting...

The uber cool Viking in Westby.

All my urban pics will be for another post.

I had such a great visit that it was almost worth coming home with the flu ;)

My favorite part? The lightening bugs. Magic.

Blessings.