Another Busy Weekend And This Weeks To Do List

I keep hoping that someday it will slow down just a little (I can dream lol). I had planned on getting all my fall cleaning done and fall decorations out. I am only about a month late on both of them.
Got up Saturday morning and got started on cleaning the living room while Andy was working on Joleens car.Well I had no sooner got started when he needed my help, then I had to run to town for parts.By the time I got back it was time to go  pick Joleen up from work. Got back and went back to work on the living room. I took down all the curtains and washed them, moved everything and cleaned behind, sweep the  ceiling (We have that nasty texture stuff and it gets all ucky from the wood stove so I have to sweep it to clean it)
cleaned the ceiling fan washed all the oil lamps and all the glass rearranged the book shelves moved furniture around, mopped and put a gloss on the floor. That was all I was able to get done before Andy came in and said it was time to go hunting for my buck Katie and I have buck tags for this season. Well I got mine so it took all evening to get it doable and by the time I got home I was done. I had planned on coming back and doing a little more oh well.I had really wanted to get the living room dining room and kitchen all done. Then I was going to do a little yard work Sunday.

Sunday I worked on the dining room and got most of it done. I had to go to Shiprock to meet my Brother to give him some stuff and Shiprock is about half way for the both of us (about 45 miles).

Hoping to get the kitchen done today.

Then the rest of the week work on the other rooms.

Finish getting the yard ready for winter.

Decorate the house and outside for Halloween and Fall.

Get caught up on laundry, The girls usually do there own but with Joleen working , their cheer practice every night and home work they are more behind then I am and that is bad. With hunting and trying to get unpacked I am way behind. So I will try to get all of it done. I may have to cheat and use the dryer bad as I hate to.

I also need to get back to the preschool lessons in my daycare. I would like to do a post on Friday about what we learned all week and the projects we have done that week.

I am going to try and get the Food Storage Challenge caught back up.

I have  about 10 pounds of apples I need to work up, think I will make a little apple butter. About 10 pounds of beets that I want to dehydrate. And some pumpkins that I want to make in to pumpkin butter and roast the seeds.

Then Friday I am going to try and go get potatoes.

Almost forgot Wednesday night we are going to cut up Travis's elk.
Hope I can get all that done this week.

Hunting 2013

Just spent the past week in hunting camp. Andy and Travis had gone up the weekend before and set up camp. We camped in a different place this year, we had camped there a few years back. It snowed Thursday the day before we left.

About halfway up the mountian, the roads got snow packed. Travis was pulling his jeep ahead of me and Andy was behind me ( I hate driving snowy mountain roads). We left the horses at home so we wouldn't have to pull the trailer up in all that snow.

Finally get to camp and the cook shack had collapsed under the weight of the snow. So glad we didn't pull in at dark. We shoveled all the snow off and was able to salvage enough parts to get it put back together just a little smaller then it was.

The next morning Travis took his jeep and went a little higher then walked back to camp we walked a little lower from camp.Seen a few tracks but that was about it. Sunday Andy and Travis did some more walking then when they got back we came back down and got the horses to take back up. Got back that evening and they went a rode till dark.

Monday and Tuesday just did  a lot of riding and just saw a few tracks.Wednesday the last day of the season Travis took the Jeep and parked it and walked down to a place they had found then at daylight Andy took the horses to go meet him. About mid morning Travis got his Elk. They brought it back and we packed up and got ready to come home. We will go take camp down Saturday since both Andy and I had to work the next day.

As we were getting ready to go Andy lost 3rd and 4th gear in the pickup. We very carefully come down the mountain.Got down and decided to try to go on home since he had 5th gear. Get almost home and my brother had to come get the horse trailer because we weren't sure if we could get up the hill out of Dolores. We finally made it home. So nice to be warm again.

Andy has a tag for the last season and we will get Katie an over the counter tag, so hopefully someone will get an elk this, year so we have some meat.

4th of July Part 3

We got back home pretty late so just went to bed. The next morning We got up and went to the river. Andy's family and friends always go down there to play music. By the time we got there a lot of people had already left so we found a place to park and set up camp. The girls set their tent up next to the pickup.

 

Hard to believe that in previous years we would raft down this.

 

Some places are just puddles it is so sad. Hopefully next year it will have some more water in it.

 

Sure is different country then where we just came from.

 

A few of them playing. Wasn't a lot of people left so not to any players.

 

Andy playing his fiddle.

 

We got up the next morning and headed home to get ready for the work week. It was a good long weekend.

Week 39 Food Storage Challenge

50 pounds Wheat or Flour/Matches

50 pounds of wheat or flour. If you are storing wheat be sure to use it regularly so your family gets use to eating it. It will be very hard to all the sudden introduce it in a crisis situation plus your body also needs to get use to eating it. Plus it gives you time to learn how to cook with it and work out any kinks you may have.

Matches If you can get strike anywhere matches they are the best but they are hard to find. You may also want to add extra lighters also.

Keep putting back water.

Add a little more to your money stash.

Continue working out as often as you can.

4th of July in Silverton part 2

The next morning we got up ate breakfast then loaded up to go jeeping. We got a little ways up and it stated raing.Travis didn't have his top on. so he and the girls got a little damp.

 

There are so many old mines and shafts.

 

This one they are fixing up.

 

They have the mine closed up in the back . See how yellow the rocks are in the water, from all the minrals.

 

We had to get inside to get out of the hail strom.

Drove for a while more then we

 stopped for lunch.

The water in all the lakes is so clear, you can almost see the bottom. See the jeeps in teh bottom right hand that kind of shows how far up we were from the lake

 

This kind of shows how steep some of teh roads were. Although the two passes we went on last year were way worst in fact I got out and walked a coulple times last year.

 

It is so pretty up here.

 

we were almost 13,000 feet it was a little chilly there was snow in a few places.

Part of an old ghost town.

 

You can't see it very well in this picture but therse seveal old mins down there.

 

IT's almost like being on top of the world.

 

this is in pretty good shape.

 

And this would be the bathroom That I got locked in. Every one thought it was very funny (I didn't) I went in and locked the door well got ready to leave it would not unlock. It is a very unsettling feeling to be locked in the outhouse many miles away from anything.They finally got it unlocked and the first thing my dad asked me was why did you lock it. It is just habit to lock the out house lol  

 

Heaed back into town.

 

Almost every where you look there are old mines.

 

We got back to camp and we loaded up and went back home Andy wanted to go down to the river to play music. I will have more about that in part 3. 

4th of July in Silverton part 1

I am only 3 months late in posting this. It was such a good time I do want to share though.

This is a yearly event for my family. We take the jeeps and go camping at Silverton. Silverton is one of my favorite places It is a very old mining town. It has to close down in the winter because you  can't get to it because of the snow.

We left Wednesday afternoon and got camp set up. We all camp in the same spot. This year it was two of my brothers and their familys, my sister in laws Mom and Dad, Travis and us.

Thursday morning the 4th they have the parade.

Here are some pics of the parade

This guy was playing the bag pipes it sounded so good.

a float of the train.

Dressed up like old trappers. He was shooting the musket (just powder no ball) it was very loud.

 

unicyclist in cowboy hats.

 

This is a big Jeeping weekend so the parade is full of Jeeps the green one is one of my brothers, the middle and last jeep have their front tires on the next jeep, pretty cool to watch them do it.

 

An old timey band.

 

The fire truck comes last and sprays everone.

The girls right before they got wet. At the end of the parade they have a water fight at the fire station.

 

This is the train coming in. It starts in Durango goes to Silverton and stays a while then back to Durango. Many years ago when the train pulled in they would have a shoot out, it was way cool to watch but like a lot of things they had to stop because someone got hurt.

 You can even get a stage coach ride.

 

The girls got old time pictures done we had ours done when we went to the stock show

 

After the paade we went back to camp and got ready for the fireworks you have to get a spot early because it fills up fast. Silverton has the largest fireworks display on the western slope. People come from all around to see it. We take stuff to grill for supper while we are waiting.

 

The Fireworks are amazing and extra load, there are mountins on all sides so the booms have extra loud echos.

 

Afterwards we headed back to camp. I will do the next day in part two there is just to much to put in one post.

Homecoming 2013

Well Homecoming week is over now maybe the girls can slow down a little. I got Joleens dress done she was very happy with it.

The girls played powder puff football they were on opposite teams. I think by looking at the picture you can tell whose team won.

 They were tied at the end so they played sudden death ( I think that is what they called it. I am not a football person lol) I was wishing they would of ended it in a tie they they both could of been happy lol.

Then the next night they had the football game. I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pics of the game or the girls cheering.

Saturday night they had the dance.

 

 

Here they are with their dates.

 

 

 

 

 

 We took a picture of some of the girls and their shoes of course my two had to have the odd ball shoes lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 38 Food Storage Challenge

5 pounds of Honey/Apples

5 pounds of honey if you can not afford honey or do not have access then get 25 pounds of sugar. Honey will store indefinitely if it sugars up just put in a pan of boiling water and it will turn back to liquid.

Apples  now is the time of year to get apples. You can can them or dehydrate them. Make applesauce, pie filling, apple butter,  dried apples, apple juice, and vinegar. You can also buy these things if you can not can, or do not have access to apples.

Add more water.

Put a little ore in your money stash.

Where I have been.

Hi thought I would pop in right quick and let every one know I am still here and what I have been up to.

I have been working on all the stuff we have gotten from the garden, 900 pounds tomatoes 9 we covered some of the tomato plants before the freeze so hopefully we will have more), 110 pounds of bell peppers,107 pounds of zucchini, 200 pounds cucumbers,10 pounds cayenne peppers, 45 pounds of jalapenos, 40 pounds tomatillos, in addition to 100 pounds of green chili, 50 pounds of apples that we bought so I have been extra busy with canning. I am still working on some of this .

I am also making Joleens homecoming dress she couldn’t want just a simple dress, no this is what she wanted.

 








It was 250 dollars and another one we found that was similar was 350 so I told her I would make it. There is no pattern for a dress like this so I am having to use a pattern that is close and adjust it to be what she wants it also has to have straps (I won’t let the girls wear strapless dress.) Katie bought her dress but wants me to add some more tulle to it so it will be more puffy.

Been trying to get the yard ready for winter, had to move all my raspberry plants, Plant some trees and bushes I had. Also trying to clean up all the weeds in the yard and get it mowed.

In between all this I had a bad toothache that got infected. If I catch them in time I can take care of them so they don’t get to bad but I didn’t and I paid for it. I have never had so much pain before that silly thing knocked me down for a whole week. (I had Chemo 25 years ago and it ruined my teeth I have spent a ton of money on them but I still have issues.)

Got some of my herbs in and picked some Mullin.

We had a pig butchered, but we cured our own hams and bacon, we have the meat in the freezer to grind and make our sausage as soon as we get a chance. I was able to get the fat from it and a little more so I had about 50 pound to render down. I did over cook one batch of lard but went ahead and canned it to use when I make soap.

Andy has been busy trying to get all the hay in plus all the custom cutting he does. We did have a lot of hay down when we got the bad rains the hay was down for 21 days not to great, but at least we can feed it to the cows.

I need to be done with all this before the Friday after next as that is when we start hunting. We will go up this weekend and set up camp. Andy ,Joleen and I all have Elk and Deer tags so hopefully we will get some meat this year.Katie didn't draw this year so she will probably get an over the counter tag.

Joleen got a part time job as a waitress, she is loving it. Trying to figure out how to use her time wisely so she can get everything done, between school, work, cheer, and holding an officers position in FFA she is staying very busy.

So hopefully I can get a little more caught up and start posting
 again.

I have had some questions on a few things I will try to get them answered soon.