We raised two baby squirrels last spring. Stuart and Gribley. Gribley hasn't been seen since last fall but Stuart stuck around until it got pretty cold. He showed up recently on our porch looking for a handout. We were SO glad to know he made it through his first winter.
The house! We haven't been camping since it got quite cold. The Lord has blessed us with a nice place to stay when not camping. We've been able to keep our household things there all summer too.
We'll be moving up to the house as soon as our wood cookstove arrives. It seems I can feel the wonderful heat and smell the soup simmering already. :)
By the way, this picture was taken in October. All the doors and windows are in. Thankfully. ;)
I can't believe it's been almost a YEAR since I last posted!
Well, our house sold in March. How encouraging it is to see God working. We've purchased 80 acres and are about to begin building as soon as we can get a road in. (Once we get to the property, we travel up to our campsite on the ATV.) We've set up housekeeping right there in the woods. :) This is part of our current "driveway".
This is a sample of one of our meals. Oh it was so good. It's been a few weeks now and we're all getting pretty good at campfire cookery, although we lost a few pieces of toast along the way. ;) Everything just cooks so much faster!
Well, I have lots of pictures and weeks of adventure I could write about. I'll have to save it for another time...it's really late and I need to get to bed. We're down in town for a few days so I thought I would take advantage of an available internet connection.
I am SO proud of Levi. All in all, his sick day hasn't been very bad. He's kept busy with his bear most of the time and was determined to finish it before his daddy and brothers got home. He looks at the pictures we took of the pattern and pieces of felt and remarks that he can't believe he did this all by himself. It's been a good day. When his fingers would get tired of pushing the needle through the felt, he sat on the couch absorbed in the new seed catalog we got in the mail today from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Levi hasn't been feeling so well since yesterday. He spent most of his time laying on the couch looking at books and watching nature videos. I decided last night that if he was still down, I would give him a project to do. He loves to sew:
We found the idea and pattern to make it at Hearts and Trees. I will post a picture of his completed bear later. :)
He took a break for awhile and helped me to make more crackers to put in the dehydrator. This time we made sprouted wheat with onion and chives and also sprouted wheat with caraway seeds. I'm looking forward to the onion and chives crackers with some sunflower seed sour cream!
We've had a busy week with school... we seemed to have more projects than usual. Also, I've been experimenting in the kitchen with some raw food recipes from Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison. We made some Italian Flaxseed crackers in the dehydrator and they were a big hit. We also made some raw pate' recipes: Mexican Chereezo Stuffer and Zinc Veggie Nut stuffer which are very good on the crackers or with corn chips. I wish I had photos to share. It made an attractive and colorful meal. I had a whole bunch of sprouted soft wheat that needed used up so we made crackers out of that too. I tried some in the oven and some in the dehydrator. I was surprised that we all preferred the dehydrated crackers over the oven ones. More raw, so that is good. I never expected them to be so crispy and cracker-like. They really are delicious!
God's goodness has been so very evident this week. We have heard and seen prayers answered for family and friends who have trusted in Him and believed that His timing is best.
My first Sew Crafty Friday! I've been doing a few crafty things here and there but haven't ever taken the time to share. This one is so fun so I thought I would post about it.
When we first started, we practiced on regular wax paper. Those turned out nice...sort of like snowflakes. Once we had the basic folds down we tried it out on the special colored paper.
We hung them on the windows in our dining room. We have bird feeders outside so we can watch the birds while we eat, but once in awhile they fly into the windows. Since the stars have been up they haven't hit the windows anymore.
We purchased the kit at Hearthsong.
If you would like to participate in Sew Crafty Friday or even just to see what others are working on, you can go here to Shereen's blog.
Now I'm not talking about the "Family Treehouse" that we started last year...this is Levi's own treehouse that he built with Drew during their father/son week. We will be working on our big treehouse again this week. The camera I used in the beginning construction stage didn't take the best photos so I'll start here with the better photos:
The posts are in and the platform is in place and secured.
Next, the walls go up.
Here they are cutting the OSB for the roof.
Levi handing a section of the roof up to Drew from the deck of the scaffolding.
As soon as the rain and clouds go away I will go out and take some photos of the (almost) finished treehouse. They have the sides on, the shingles on and now all he needs is a door and windows.
Something else that Silas wanted to do on his father/son time was to get firewood.
Last year we had some of our acreage logged which left us with an abundance of firewood and a lot of tree tops and brush to clean up. In three days they were able to get several cords cut, hauled to the house and stacked. They kept the brush piles burning too and the woods is really shaping up. In North Idaho we burned a lot of firewood and we always had so much fun getting it. Here in Missouri, we won't need nearly as much but they still had a lot of fun.
Silas and Drew went on their father/son backpacking trip and had a great time! They did a 12 mile portion of the trail in 2 days. We knew what time we were supposed to pick them up so we got a meal together and met them at their campsite. It was such a beautiful Fall day. Drew and I sat in the sun together while the boys played at the pond.
Silas found these HUGE puffballs. It was too bad they were over the hill. I'm sure they would've loved to have made them into puffball "steaks" for lunch.
This is Silas on the trail with his 20lb. pack! Drew said he did really well.
The roof is ready for the shingles. We're not sure when that will happen, but hopefully soon! As you can see, the gable ends still need put on and some finish work needs done before it can be stained. In time, a few windows will go in as well. What a week!
By the end of the day, the whole roof was on and the tar paper was down. It is so nice to see them working together like this. :)
Doesn't he look happy? :) He has enjoyed this so much. I will post more pictures of the progress they made today. They were also able to get the sides on his cabin. It still needs more work but Drew is off this project for a time and on to backpacking with Silas. They leave tomorrow!
Roof rafters!! What a difference this step has made.
A view from the front. Ukiah has chosen where he wants to place bird feeders and a salt block so he can watch the birds, deer and other wildlife. I can already visualize him sitting on his front porch when this cabin is completed. :)
