First snow of the year and I finally got my Buck

 

Well we got our first snow of the season we were up a little higher looking for Elk so there was a little more snow. It snowed pretty good for a while.

We stopped for lunch, was going to eat outside so we built a fire but decided the wind was way to cold so we ate in the pick-up it was sooo cold.

Never did see an elk or even a track. We ran into some friends who were camped up there also looking for elk they hadn’t seen any thing either.
If we had a few more days with this storm we might have had better luck.

 Started getting late so we headed home.

The next day we did find some deer down lower.

I finally got my Buck,

A real nice 4x4 I was proud. It was still cold I think I had on 20 layers of clothes and coats and was still cold. I got it in the field so we loaded it up and took it to the Hay Barn to take care of it so we could be out of the wind.

 

Our neighbors grandson was here from Washington and he thought that deer was pretty neat. His dad wanted the hide so he could try and tan it. Can’t wait to see how he does it. That is something I have been wanting to try and do.

Well Hunting is all over. I told Andy that next year we need to not have tags in every season all we have been doing is hunting and not getting any thing else done.

Medicinal uses for Mormon tea

Medicinal uses for Mormon tea.

Mormon tea is a shrub that grows in the south western desert of the United States as well as Mexico. Some of the other names are Brigham tea, Squaw tea, Popotillo, and Joint Fir. There is always a lot by the old Indians ruins.

Mormon tea can be used for colds. Flu, headaches, lung problems, water retention, rheumatism.

It can be used safely for urinary tract problems as a diuretic and a a urinary tract astringent and a moderate anti-inflammatory.

As a externally dressing for wounds.

Mormon tea is on of the best tea sources for calcium if using for calcium make it fresh each time. It is helpful alone or with other plants for a women at risk for osteoporosis and in early menopause.

If drank on a regular basis it can help alleviate seasonal allergies.

Mormon tea does not cure asthma but it can help with the symptoms related to asthma.

It can help stem diarrhea.

Dried and powdered stems can be used externally as a dressing on wounds and sores.

It was used by frontiersmen to cure venereal or sexually transmitted diseases.

To use Mormon tea you can use it fresh or dried to brew a tea and can be drank hot or cold.

I mix mine in my peppermint and spearmint tea and drink it cold I use about 1/3 cup of each and brew a strong tea then add to a gallon picture and fill with water I do add sweetener .

 In the winter I will brew a cup of Mormon tea to drink hot I can’t drink coffee anymore so it is nice to have something that I can replace it with, and since it grows wild here it is free.



Still Hunting, only different country.

Still Hunting, only different country.

Well This season Andy has a bull tag and Katie and I have buck tags.

Early Sunday morning we went out behind the hay field there were 6 nice Bucks so I told Katie to go ahead and get hers, well come to find out I need to get her eyes rechecked by the time she figured out where they were and could get a shot they were already gone. She couldn’t see far off so as we were driving around to the back side of the hayfield I was pointing out things to see if see could see them, well poor thing has my eyes. Don’t know how well she will do this year hunting.


After That Andy and I took the horses out to the point didn’t relly think we would see anything but there has been a few oput there. We did see two does but that didn’t do us any good.

As you can see the country sure is different then it was in the mountains.



Lots of Mormon Tea I will do a post latter at all the medicinal remedies of this plant.

The view off into the canyon.

Lots of pinion trees

I was hoping I could gather some pine nuts but there wasn’t very many to late in the season I guess.

We came upon an old anasazi ruins there are a lot of these out here. Pretty neat to look at.

I love the coloring in some of these rocks

A few pottery shards that were on the ground. You want to leave these on the ground can get in a lot of trouble if you pick these up.

Lots of yucca plants I will also do a post on these a little later on.

Well we didn’t see anything well we did see a few tracks, but we had a real nice ride. Has been a long time since Andy got to ride this country. He rode it all the time when he was a kid. I am hoping to go back soon to ride and take the girls

Run away Llama

He got across the creek before I could get his picture

　
Run away Llama

When we went hunting the corral gate got left open so star our llama decided to go on a trip.

 Took us forever to find him. We got home to late Sunday night to go look for him, so Monday night we had a few minutes before dark to go look for him didn’t see him tuesday some one came to the house to see if we were missing a llama, because there was one in his hayfield and that was a good five mile south of us. Well we drove around that night and the next and still couldn’t find him. Then Thursday a close neighbor posted on face book wanting to know if anyone was missing a llama told her I was well by this time he was north of the house and walking down the road, I had a house full of kids and couldn’t go after it so when Andy came home for lunch he looked and found him in a field north of our house. He talked to the owner who said it would be fine to leave him there until we got off work and could go get it. When Andy got off work he got the 4 wheeler went down to find him then herded it towards the house. I stood in the road and turned it towards the Corrals, I wish I would have gotten a picture it was pretty funny watching him herd that llama with a four wheeler. We finally got him in the corral and back to the pasture He traveled pretty far while he was gone guess he wanted to go visiting.

Do you have a Self Sustaining Pantry?



Foodtown – Middletown, New Jersey – Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012 (viaTwitter

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Do you have a self sustaining Pantry?

How long could you survive in your home without any outside help or, all the store shelves are empty. FEMA and the government will not always be there to help. Hurricane Sandy has left a lot of people without power and access to food and FEMA and the government can not help everyone. Do you really want to have to rely on the government.

Reports show that most people only have 3 days or less of food in there homes. In the event of a disaster natural or manmade would you be able to feed your family? How would you feel watching your family going hungry just because you didn’t take the time and effort to have a self sufficient pantry. A self sufficient pantry is more then just food and water it is everything that you need to survive a disaster or even a job loss. In this economy wouldn’t it feel great to know you had the things you need to survive

disaster or economic hard times.
 

Now if you are like most people you can not just go out and stock up your pantry with everything you need to last for 3 months or more. But there are things you can do to make it a little easier.

I am going to try and do a weekly overview of the things that I have done that week towards self sufficient pantry on a tight budget and hopfully this will be of a help towards your own self sufficient pantry.

A good place to start toward a self sustaining pantry is to make a menu of the meals you normally cook and do a rough estimate of what ingredients and how much you use in a month. Then try to figure how much hygiene and paper products you use in a month. After you have done this, do not get discouraged it will look a little over whelming but there are a lot of ways to shorten the list.

Some of the things that I do is a lot of canning and preserving my own food, cook everything from scratch. And make as much as I can myself. Although there are some things that have to bought so the things I have to buy I try to buy only on sale and then I buy several cases, this way I don’t have to pay full price, and buy in bulk when possible ( as always check the prices because occasionally it is not cheaper.).

You can also look at my frugal tips  here to get an idea of where to save a little money so you have a little extra to use on the things you need to buy.

I found this photo here