Canyon Hike

My sister-in-law had a birthday and wanted an adventure to take the family on. Well, we got it.  We went hiking up and down a canyon and it was the perfect way to kick off spring!  Enjoy the view...

The Beginning.  There was a small trail along this creek but it quickly turned to more climbing than walking.  A true hike in my opinion. :)

    
    Cousin C and Sassafras were not amused.  Waiting for the stragglers was no fun.

      
     View from the top. 

  Good thing she wore orange and I have good zoom on the camera as this is zoomed in all the way otherwise they looked like ants at the bottom from where I took the last picture!

  Grandma S where we stopped for a break before heading back.

   The water was rushing everywhere and we had lots of little waterfalls to look at.  I loved it!

  Looks almost alien huh? These's are frog eggs sitting in a puddle.

 
Here my sister-in-law picks up a cluster.  You can see the tadpoles forming.  So neat. Now this is hands on school!

This fence lizard trying to stay warm is the only other life we saw this day.  I'm sure we were loud enough to scare anything else off.

End of the line for us.  There was to no way to get to this spot with out getting very wet. :) 

As incredible as it sounds this is a cave entrance.  Were glad no one fell in but of course that didn't stop us from climbing down to check it out.

Sassafras climbing out and yelling at me to put the camera down and help her. 

Super D took this one from inside the cave looking up at Sugar Bug.

 

    Also taken from inside the cave it had a second entrance from the water.

 

 

This picture taken from the other side. 

 

 

Passing little ones down. We have to get down through the hole under the rock.

 

 

Here's me landing. We all ended up with wet feet at some point in this journey.  I'll be sweet and not post all the others coming through this space.  I want my family to keep talking to me at least ;)

 

 

Our little neices were such awesome troopers.  We had to pass them over several spots as we criss crossed the creek on our way down.

 

 

Aunt M looking back while catching her breath. Yes we came through all that!

 

 

We made it! (actually this spot is a drive away from where we hiked)  Our Family photo. 

Happy Birthday Aunt S.  Hope you had a great day.

Healthy Chocolate Milk

What can I say we like our chocolate around here.  With 3 girls in the house what did you expect!

 So I was in the kitchen the other day craving something sweet but still wanting to stay away from sugar.  So as I rummaged in the cupboards I found I had cocoa so I racked my brain what I could make with cocoa.

I decided on Chocolate Milk and threw together this healthy version that uses honey for sweetener. 

Heathly Chocolate Milk.

I just grabed a kitchen teaspoon (like what you eat your cereal with)
2 heaping teaspoons of Cocoa
2 heaping teaspoons of Honey
Just enough hot water to mix into a syrup (about a tablespoon or so) stir together.
Then pour milk to fill glass and stir. 

It was delicious and if you wanted Hot Chocolate just heat your milk.  I feel ten times better giving into my kids chocolate milk demands with this.   I think it tasted better than the  chocolate syrup we used to buy!
Enjoy!

All Grown up

  Easter came twice this year for us! Our chickens layed their first eggs this week!! 

Even Sassafras was excited about the eggs. It took about 5 months for us to get our first eggs.

We got our chicken coop built complete with boxes for them to nest in.

There is still work to be done but it is functional for now.  This picture was taken the day we found eggs.
Below is how our chicks grew!

November they arrived.

 December big enough to move outside!

  January taking a dirt bath..

By February they are pretty much full grown here.
They have been so much fun to watch.  They are all still very tame with the exeption of our roosters. They like to practice their dominance by chasing children that run and pecking at thier legs. :)  Our girls have gotten better about warding them off. Sugar bug carries a "chicken" stick with her to bat away attacking chickens.
We only need to have one ot two roosters so we are still deciding which roosters to keep.  We have four right now. The others will go the the frying pan. 

We feed our chickens ground corn but only feed them a couple handfuls in the morning and evening.  They get the rest of their food from the land.

So ever wonder the difference of farm, free range eggs from store? 

Our's are smaller but will get bigger as our chickens grow a bit. They are brown because our chickens lay brown eggs.  Some chickens lay white eggs, some blue, and even geen. 

I did a little research and this Mother News site tells the nutritional difference of store bought and free range eggs.  Including what qualifies as free range being that chickens are able to get food from the land.  And interestingly enough that eggs labeled free range from the store may not have the same quality as there are not strict regulations for what qualifies as free range.
We have eaten our share of store eggs the cheapest you can buy and some inbetween grades but farm fresh are by far the best tasting!  If  you have a way to get good eggs I highly encourage you too.

Any questions??  

More Power Please....

So I keep wondering if any readers wonder how I post on a blog when my profile tells you we have no electric? I guess I may need to reword it now that we have a well too. ;)
We have electricity but we are what they call off the grid.  We don't get our power from a power line feed by a power company that we pay to use their energy.  We run off of Solar.  In some of our pictures I'm sure you've seen our solar panels in the background.

This picture is from shortly after we moved here.  We had the panels leaning against the trailer until we could built a stand for them. 
Super D made these panels while we were in CO.  So we have had some power from the beginning.  The panels supplied enough energy for us to power or lights, TV, X-box, and freezer last summer.  At the end of summer we moved our freezers to a family members house to power while we were on our trip to Colorado, we never moved it back.  It worked out well there and we share it with our family too. 
Now, Super D has gotten into the business of selling and installing Solar for others.  Since we made our panels the cost of solar has come down significantly.  So we bought some new panels...

See the new panels leaning against the old behind the blue thing.  (that is the pressure tank for water.. and I was getting my garden rota tilled! Yeah!)
The difference is that the factory made panels produce more power than our homemade ones.  We upgraded a bit.  We have plenty of power most days.  When we have long stretches of cloud cover and run down our batteries we have a generator for back up.
Will we ever get on the grid?? Maybe, we did look into it but it costs to much to get us hooked up.and while I love not having a electric bill solar does take more thought and effort to watch what  you are using.  In the long run that is probably a good thing as we aren't wasting energy just because it's available.  But that also means we think twice about everything we plug in and things we want that will run off electric.  Eventually we will have enough solar or be on the grid to not worry to much about it. 

 You can tell we live in the information age as it was easier for us to get DSL Internet run to our place than to get a well drilled!  We are fortunate to live where they ran DSL so we have good Internet, go a couple miles up the road and they are still on dial up or have to get satellite Internet. 

So while we may live in the middle of nowhere we really aren't in the dark.  We have plenty of electronics to entertain and keep us busy along with everything else. :)
Any Questions?

1 Year!

It's a little hard to believe but we have been here 1 year.  It feels like we still just got here!  As I look back at the last year I do so with good memories.  I don't think we are as established as we wanted to be a year after getting here but we are well on our way.  We have had some discouragements like our well taking so long to get, the cost of some things being more than we expected and being low on funds at times, and weather not cooperating with our plans to get things done.  But on the whole we have been very blessed also!  Super D has work that he enjoys with flexibility, we did get our well in, we have friends and family supporting us, and we have been well fed and cared for.  As a family we are less stressed, more relaxed and happier. We certainly have less as the world may measure but that just means we have less to worry about. 
We still have along way to go but that is half the fun :)  We are still dreaming and making plans.
As I sit here writing this I am listening to the chickens crow outside which means we will have eggs and meat soon, the rain is on it's way which bodes well for a good garden this year, and my fire is stocked so we are warm.  I really could not ask for more.  Well, OK I admit I still want running, hot water but I can be patient as I know it will come.  

So again I am looking forward to spring as it brings the promise of hope for good to come!  Hope for a good garden, hope for a fun summer, hope for running water, and hope for unexpected blessings that amaze me continually.

We had a blessed Easter and I hope you did too.  Here are some highlights from our weekend. 

Sugar Bug dying eggs with the cousins.  They dyed 3 doz eggs and wanted more. The little one ended up with blue hands but they had fun!

  Cousin S here is Sugar Bugs little shadow.   The Go-Kart is the newest addition to our fun toys.  They have had a blast driving it around.  We were blessed with a beautiful Easter day in the 70's so we could picnic outside!

 This was the cousin's first Easter egg hunt.  They caught on quick and had a blast! 

The men have to gather around a car to chat right.  In this case the go kart to talk cars and of course how to make the go kart go faster! LOL.

And of course there is the test of strength.  :)  We had a great Easter with family and friends. Sassafras helped me out and made a wonderful Peach Cherry pie for dessert.

Looking forward to more fun times this summer!  Lot's of projects on the to do list.  :) 

Colorado Snow?!?!?!

  OK so I think we brought a little Colorado weather with us!  We just got 7 inches of snow in March!  It is a good wet snow that wil really help with water levels and we had a blast playing in it...  Now I am not one for cold, but if it must be cold I want snow to go with it.  I love the snow.  I love to play in it sledding, building snowmen, and snow forts.  Never been much of a skier, I think it was always just too expensive a hobby for us.  I love the night sky when it's snowing, so bright and light out in the middle of the night.  Best of all the beauty of a fresh blanket of snow untouched that layers the earth like a blanket. 

Pictures never do it justice!    By the way, the ditch there is for plumbing to the trailer.  :)

 Well, I think we miss 4 wheeling the mountians a bit. Super D pulled the canoe like a sled but slid down the hill ito the trees.

While Super D unstuck the jeep, the girls and I made a massive snowball....

We actually made two, I'm sitting on one, but they were too heavy to stack.

Fluffy found a nice warm spot to cuddle up. Of course Sugar bug doesn't mind.

I swear my kids and husband are like Tim Taylor on the TV show Home Improvement "Arr Arr Arr More Power" :)

Who knew water toys could be so much fun in the snow too!

So much fun and beauty!  Now, I'm ready for warm weather and spring please!

Spring Break

OK, so we took spring break a little early but it was nice.  We had the opportunity to go and meet my sister in Oklahoma and visit my mom and grandma all at once.  We were paying our repects to a dear family friend who passed away and while that was bitter the rest of the trip was sweet....

 Game Night!  We had fun playin Mexican Train Dominoes. 

 You can see it in Sugar bug's eyes..... "My hair is fine Grammy!"

We got to go to the Tulsa Zoo. We'll we tried to go on one day that was nice weather and beautiful. Same day the above picture was taken. But the line to get in was a mile long and we decided we didn't want to fight the crowds.  So we went the next day it was cloudy and chilly but not too cold to be misrible and nice because there were few people.  But I think the previous days crowds wore the animals out alot of them were sleeping but we still got to see alot of neat animals up close!

Yes, that is a camel and yes it has a saddle and harness so of course we have to ride!  It was very cool but as I was riding no one took pictures.  (although Aunt J bought some so I just have to wait to get my copy) 

Spring is in the air in Tulsa.  This tree was one of only a few I saw blooming.  But I love the promise of summer that it brings!

Isn't he magnificent. We even got to hear him roar! It was incredible.

This is what most of the animals looked like :) 

Sassafras walking with a sea lion.  So beautiful.

Grammy took this picture but we had entered the rainforest an the lens kept fogging up on her.  This was the best one.

 

 

My favorite!  Dogs, cats, chickens, bears, it doesn't matter Sugar Bug talks to them all. This was a grizzly and.....

Here's her with a polar bear at the denver zoo several years ago.  Just our little animal whisperer!

We had a great time just us girls.  Super D had to stay home and work. We are glad to be home and things are really picking up with the nice weather we have more often now...  I promise lots of new things to come!

Let me know... What do you want to know about our life?? What questions do you have?  I would love some input and ideas...