Jordan, Martha and Lydia

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.

Should I wonder at this?

Lydia was so cute.

She looks so serious.

Too cute!

I bought some corn at the store, and Jordan decided to teach Lydia how to shuck it.

She got the hang of it pretty quick.

Notice the determined look on her face.

“Here…take this.”

“This is a lot harder than I thought”.

I decided to capture a little video of her shucking the corn.

Definitely a Daddy’s girl!

Jordan decided to tackle the part of the yard that I couldn’t quite get to, right in front of the garden. Due to his allergies, he wore a face mask to help keep him from getting overwhelmed.

It was so nice to hear the weed wacker just chop down the weeds under its ruthless power. Buwahahhaa…

Sorry.

So, knowing he was hard at work, I decided to try to make him a nice hearty breakfast (usually it turns into a brunch) so that it would be satisfying when he came in. I decided to make Cinnamon rolls from the Copy Cat cookbook “top secret Recipes” for the Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls. The dough.

Here are some mangoes that were chopped up.

Some Nectarines (you gotta have your varieties in fruit).

I love doing this! The brown sugar for the cinnamon rolls. (I love how the sugar keeps the shape of the container it came out from.)

Haha! And even the measurement indentation. Just in case I forgot, right?

The filling mixture .

As I had made a double batch, I decided to try to sweeten the filling on one of the batches with honey, instead of sugar. This one was the normal one, with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

This one was honey and butter mixed together. It spread fairly good, but was kind of soupy.

Jordan and Lydia shelling garlic.

Lydia is such a good helper!

Okay, here are some preliminary results. These are ready for baking. These are the ones done with honey.

The two on the far left are ones done with sugar. Big difference in looks.

Here are the ones done with sugar, fully baked.

Here are the ones done with honey, fully baked. Note the HUGE difference in looks!

Covered with the sweet topping, there isn’t much difference in looks any more, but there was a bit of a flavor difference. Overall, my personal preference is the one made with sugar! Naturally, Jordan liked the ones done with honey.

We had quite a few leftover, so I think I shall be freezing them for a later time. Enjoy!

Lydia is learning to drink from a glass. Sometimes it is a little scary!

She is being goofy in this picture.

A beautiful smile.

And another beautiful smile.

Her talking as she is coming down the stairs.

Lydia’s new ball.

Very delicious cheese that Jordan’s family picked up for me back in Pennsylvania from a Mennonite family farm.

Lydia talking on the phone with Daddy, parts 1, 2 & 3.

A beautiful rainbow towards the east!

Trying to get the color right for the sunset.

Ahh…a better picture.

And since I was playing around with exposure, I thought I’d get the light from the toaster oven as I’m heating up food. 😀

You gotta have fun in life sometimes!

We were on our way to the Homeschool convention in Phoenix, cialis and as we were passing through an intersection, medicine we heard the sound that everyone dreads, tadalafil the sound of squealing tires and metal crunching. Someone behind us had gotten into an accident. Jordan quickly pulled into a turning lane and jumped out to make sure everyone was okay. By the time that I thought to get the camera out, the rescue people had already arrived.

Here is the fire truck, with Jordan and the other people there. (There were a few that had also stopped to make sure that everyone was okay.) I think both the lady sitting on the ground and the lady in white squatting behind her were involved in the accident.

Sheriff stopping to check on things, as well as other vehicles stopped for the accident.

Here comes the Metro train. The turning lane we were parked in was right next to the tracks.

Wrapping things up, getting details from the people about the accident.

Here comes Jordan, checking for traffic before crossing.

The medics checking out the people. One of the people was really in shock.

Here comes the traffic on the very busy street where this happened.

Fortunately, we were all safe! No one was injured in the accident. We made it to the homeschool convention a little late, but safe and sound!

So I tried to get my  own planet-going-across-the-sun shot. Here’s the sun, but I think I was a little late for the planet. :p

I’ve been working on trying to help get the garden fence up and going. Here is a picture of my latest: Digging little holes for the posts and filling them with water to soften the ground to be able to pound the poles in.

Here is a line of a few of my holes. They are about 5 feet apart.

Later when the boys got home from work, I pleaded for a few minutes of work in the garden, doing the MANual labor part. (heh…I think there is a reason why it is called MANual labor.) Austin took to pounding the poles in…

…While Jordan dug out the ant poison and started spreading it around on the large ant piles around the house.

Lydia pulled out her little spade and was doing her part in the garden. (looks like she was attacked by a pen! lol)

Slowly but surely, the garden is coming together!