Jordan, Martha and Lydia

While driving around town running errands, illness I noticed a small crowd.

A closer look revealed “Free Phones”.

*Shakes head*

Here are a few photos from Harmony. Some of the few that I got that night.

The Broaddus Girls

The crowd.

I found Lydia in the sweetest sleeping pose. I love her little angelic look. I had to capture it!

Then, and while eating dinner, discount the lights suddenly went out!

While scrambling to get some light to see, sovaldi sale we were also trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, we struck on it! New Zealand had hit Doomsday, and we ALL were suffering worldwide! We were suffering even though it was a day early for us.

Needless to say, it amused us anyways, which helped us get through dinner, clean up, and to bed without stressing anyone else.

(P.S. The power resumed as normal the next day. False alarm. 😛 )

Lydia and I were helping Candace shop for car decorations for the Christmas Parade in Ocala. We found some fun little hats, and Lydia wanted to push the cart.

I couldn’t resist a picture of Candace getting a picture. :p

Fa La La LA La La La La la!!

Here is to all of my friends who love Zaxby’s, and yet can’t go there because their lovely state doesn’t have the franchise located there (YET!) My favorite meal: The Big Zak Snack! *drools*

Lydia was loving helping Auntie Candace “Drive” her bug. We were in Sonny’s parking lot, and Lydia was having a wonderful time playing with the controls.

Me thinks we will have no problem teaching this one to drive!

Meema and Papa (Jordan’s Mom and Dad) got Lydia a swing, and Lydia loves to ride in it. Usually she has an aunt or uncle who is willing to forsake their work and give her a ride!

Meanwhile, Jordan set me to work (okay…I volunteered LOL) washing off the meat, so I took the ribcage outside and started hosing it off.

Then I decided I needed my picture taken with it.

I also then decided I needed a picture taken with me reaching inside of the ribcage, so that I could gross my Mom out. (haha…sorry Mom.)

Squinting at the light mist coming off of the hose.

Inside where we were staying, we hung up the meat to dry, and we tried to keep the house as cool as possible. Back in the bedroom where we were staying, the house smelled normal, but as you left that part and headed into the living room, kitchen area and out the front door, it had the sweetish smell of raw meat.

We spent several days working on this elk, partly due to the availability of the wise Master Butchers. I was all for chunking it up, wrapping it up, freezing it, and let’s get this over and done with as fast as possible!

Lilliana, Mom P, and Dad P were very instrumental in helping us get the elk butchered. I think Chloe and Grace stepped in for a bit, but the majority was Lilliana, Mom P. and Dad P. Needless to say, I was right in there too, but I think I was just a third wheel.  Lilliana is operating the vacuum sealing machine.

Dad is cutting ribs with the electric saw (as per my request, as I wanted ribs.)

I was concerned that he might cut himself, but all went well, and I went home with quite a bit of meat, thanks to Jordan’s family!

The last day of Hunting camp (for those of us who had gotten our elk). Sunday is the day of the community breakfast, so Angela and I started preparing our dishes for the “potluck”.

Her fruit salad.

My Bacon (yes, that is a whole pound in the pan. She taught us that you can dump the whole pound in, and if you turn it evenly, it will cook evenly and faster. It will be curly though.)

Just a random glimpse of the coolers that we had brought with to hunting camp. Part was food for us, part was food for the potluck style dinners, and part was room for elk meat!

After breakfast and “camp church”, we started breaking things down and packing things up so that we could make the long trek home.

Jordan and Jeremy ended up moving our tent out into the sun so that any leftover moisture would dry out and we wouldn’t have mold or mildew issues later on.

Here is a lot of our stuff in containers and such, ready to go, but note the jeep in the background. Our neighbor took his girl and some of his nieces mudding. I would have to say, I think that they were very successful!

This is the last of the kitchen stuff to be loaded up. It was a little sad to load up, but I needed a shower to wash my hair, and to do laundry. Needless to say, everything reeked of smoke afterwards, and all of the sleeping bags spent a few nights on the laundry line, just to air out.

After loading everything up (and everything fit, just barely), we got in the car and headed the long drive to TUCSON…to where we begin the next step of the great Elk Hunting Experience…

The BUTCHERING!

oh dear! 😮

I awoke to the most brilliant flash of light that I had ever heard, followed by dead silence, and then the most ground shaking, deafening roar of thunder that I had ever heard. Needless to say, my neighbors could probably hear me calling out “Oh Lord, have mercy on us!” As humorous as it sounds, I was serious! I was also starting to wonder. All of the day before was windy and raining, and at a few points I wondered if the tent was going to pick up and fly off, or surely collapse on me! Now the lightning and thunder? Oh my!

I had a second puddle that day as well, in which I sopped up with the towel. The tarp that we set the tent on apparently collected water underneath it, and leaked through.

Should I remind you that the water was probably 40 something degrees?

We had laid the towels out to dry on the camp chairs that we brought, and we awoke to this (okay, I awoke to that as Jordan had already left for hunting). Our chairs and the towels had frost on them.

Fortunately, by the time that I had gotten out of the tent, Jeremy and Angela had already gotten up and were attempting (more successfully this time) to make another fire. I guess there is another perk to staying in bed as late as possible, regardless of how bad you have to use that rustic, thin fabric-ed, zip up the door, plywood base with a real toilet seat camp bathroom!

Ahhh…the woods!

Oh yeah, and the rest of the camp. Note the green tarp on top of the one tent. Yeah…it was because of the rain.

We ended up inviting over for breakfast one of the guys who had come by himself. Noting how much he enjoyed the food, when Angela and I did a food experiment, we knew just who to look for! Brother Jared!

It was supposed to be like a Banana S’mores kind of deal. You split a banana in half, put in graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate chips, wrapped it in foil, stick it over heat to let the marshmallows and chocolate chips melt, and then open, cover in whipped cream, and enjoy!

It didn’t turn out as wonderful as I pictured, but it was still tasty.

Please note, for those with sensitive stomachs, I am about to post some gory pictures, as Jordan shot his elk that morning!

So…

…For people like my Mom…

…Or Anyone else…

…I am giving you the opportunity to hit “page down” Once or twice to be over and done with it. There are about 9 pictures, and I will try to provide something to let you know that you are past the pictures. I do apologize, but it WAS the whole reason why we went up there.

Besides, Mom, you don’t see this aspect of your meat, but it happens non-the-less.

Jordan came bouncing up in the truck that morning announcing that he had shot his elk. I was THRILLED! We were going home with meat. He and a few others went to pick it up later that morning.

They attached the pulley to it (Which was rigged to a tree) and pulled it up out of the truck. Yes…I watched. LOL

When they got it as high as they could, Zachary Wallace CLIMBED UP THE ELK…yes, you heard me right, he climbed up the elk, and sat on the bar between the legs of the elk and cranked himself AND the elk up higher.

He decided that it was high enough…

…and then he slid down the tree next to it.

Seth and a few others promptly jumped right in and started skinning it. They had already gutted it in the field to get it to start cooling off.

Uncle Russell was holding Lydia and trying to show her the elk, but she didn’t trust him all that much, and with her Daddy around, she knew who she wanted!

Jordan was trying to get Lydia to touch the elk, but I didn’t want to have to clean her hands, and she was a little reluctant to touch it, much to my relief!

Within a very short period of time, they had the elk mostly skinned.

It was so very nice that everyone pitched in and helped like they did! It made work a lot easier!!!

Jordan had me help clean some of the innards (liver, heart, etc) for people who would enjoy them. We gave the (huge, enormous, massive, gigantic) liver to the Brother who had taken Jordan out hunting that day and who had helped bring the elk back in. We weren’t…okay…I wasn’t interested in cooking it up, and Jordan had already said that the Brother had wanted it, so as we were washing it up, the Brother was standing right there and asked us what we were going to do with the liver. With a serious face, I jokingly replied “Oh, we are just going to dump it somewhere in the woods.” His eyes got real big, and a look of shock and disbelief crossed his face as he asked “You aren’t REALLY going to do that, are you?” I then laughed and told him that we were planning on giving it to him and his family to have, as we knew how much enjoyed elk liver.

Jordan was having fun encouraging the kids and other spectators to help wash the liver, and to hold it and touch it. (Jordan is all about encouraging people to expand their horizons! LOL). Angela and Jeremy eventually held it, and of course I helped wash it up. That was heavy. It probably weighted 10-15 pounds, and was a weird rectangle/triangle shape.

We ended up taking the rest of the “innards” to Jordan’s parents.

Needless to say, I did learn a whole bunch of new things at camp this year.

okay!

The elk pictures are done

So you are safe now.

Until we get home. haha!

After that we got to sit around and enjoy the company and the warm sun, without having to stress about getting the elk!

Some of our neighbors enjoying the fire and sun, but avoiding the smoke.

Later that evening, while setting up for dinner, Jordan decided to help out and get the fire in the wall tent (the community tent with the chairs and tables) cleaned up and burning bright and cheerful, to warm things up. Like a trooper, he scraped out the ashes and loaded up the little stove. Within a short period of time, not only was the fire burning brightly, but the tent was filling with smoke! We realized that the ashes had all been scraped out, and now there was no insulation between the little stove and the piece of wood it was sitting on, so it was starting to burn the wood, and causing the tent to fill up. We helped clear the tent of smoke, but this picture doesn’t do it justice of how intense the smoke was.

Next time…we will leave ashes!

All through the night, I was very aware of the rain that was pouring down the side of the tent right above my head, along with the blowing wind, and early that morning (in the rain), Jordan crawled out of bed to go meet his hunting partners. I snuggled further under the covers, thankful that currently I was warm and dry, but I did have my doubts as to how long being dry would last.

I shouldn’t have wondered too much, as when I eventually got up, I stepped in a puddle of water.

Very.

Cold.

Water.

While Listening to murmurings of the conversation of Jeremy and Angela Baggett (our neighbors who rolled in after us the night before), and listening to their laughter as they discovered the outside world, I started cleaning the puddle of water, which was partially under the air mattress. I guess not all of the tent is water proof.

Good to know.

Fortunately Jordan  had suggested bringing bath towels just in case, so I used one to sop up the water.

Angela was calling to me by this point, asking me if I was up, and when I was going to come out to see the snow!

SNOW?! Really?

No wonder why I was so cold! :O

She and Jeremy started getting a small camp fire built, and I struggled into my clothes (all the while needing to use the bathroom, so that helped motivate) and helped Lydia get ready to go outside.

When I arrived, the campfire needed a little help, as the wood was wet.

The snow was starting to melt a little quickly, so I decided to take pictures of the piles that was there. It was probably more like sleet, but it was still cold enough to stay on the ground for a few hours!

After using the bathroom, I decided to help start making breakfast. Angela and Jeremy had brought a folding table AND a tent for the kitchen, so the night before we had set up all the kitchen stuff under the tent.

That was so nice!

Meanwhile, Lydia was hungry, and I had made some muffins a couple days before, so I passed Lydia a muffin to munch on while we worked on breakfast. She had just sneezed when this picture was taken.

Here is Angela, camp apron and all!

We decided to rig up a canvas as walls to help keep the water off and the wind down.

Cooking eggs for breakfast. (I think we had Egg McMuffins for breakfast).

A fruit plate that I set up later for Jordan. Okay…well, I had some too, but mostly it was for Jordan, as he LOVES fruit and whipped cream!

Oh yes, and for those of you curious enough, this was the camp bathroom (behind the tree) with an extra toilet seat…maybe just in case the bathroom is full? LOL! 😀

Jordan came in later that morning, around the time we were eating breakfast, with the news that Serenity (his cousin) had gotten her elk, but he had not seen anything to shoot at just yet. Knowing we only had a few days in which to fill the tag, it made me a little nervous, but I kept praying that Jordan would get his elk, and soon!

Jordan got drawn for an Elk tag, so when the time came, we packed our bags, packed our coolers, packed the gun, packed the ammo, packed more coolers, packed tarp, packed Lydia, packed bedding, packed a tent, packed an air mattress (with pump and batteries!!!), packed up our kitchen stuff, and packed up just about anything else that we might or might not have needed. Needless to say, we took the bigger of our two vehicles (Jordan’s Suburban) so that we could fit it all.

Here we are, on our way up. (Note: This is early in the trip, as we are happy and excited! LOL)

Here we have arrived (about 4 hours later) at our camp site, where we commenced to setting up amid the greetings from the other people who were also hunting/camping.

As we pitched our tent, we awaited our neighbors (a couple from our church) as we kept an eye on the brewing weather (it was threatening to rain) and keeping close tabs on our warm wear.

Fortunately, we got set up pretty quickly, I made up the bed and got everything arranged, and our friends arrived just in time to help them get set up before needing to crawl in bed. By the time that they arrived, the weather was picking up, and it was raining, and getting cooler by the minute. None too soon, everything was up and ready, and it was time for bed, as Jordan had an early morning (3am?) to go spotting elk.

Bright and early saw me headed to the Isaacson Ranch to pick up Sis Connie Isaacson to head to the fairgrounds to enter my goods for judging. Needless to say who I thought of when I arrived:

(If you can’t guess…it was Reuben.)

A look at some of the produce that was there. I’m sorry about the blurryness.

Some livestock. (Okay…so one goat doesn’t count as “Some”, but still…)

How my blue quilt did. Second place!

My Green blouse! A Blue ribbon! (I loved that blouse before it won, but even more after. LOL)

Lydia and Me on a genuine Border Patrol 4-wheeler.

I was very tired at the end of the day, and quite glad to head home. I think I will be much better prepared for next year though…