Merry Christmas Everyone

 

Trip #2 Big Horn Mountains

 I totally lost track of posting again, sorry about that.

Here are a few pic's from our August trip to the Big Horn Mountains...

Our campsite was amazing this time...

No cow's at this spot, just a small river, hiking trails and native wildlife.

Several deer showed up in the evening.

We had a few Grey Mountain Jay come calling through out the day.

And there were loads of squirrels chattering away and using the fence like their own private highway system. They had many stash areas for their pine cones through out the forest. One even decided to dig a hole in our outside carpet to try and hide a cone.

One evening this big guy showed up walking through our camp and down to the river for a wade and a snack.

There were trails to wander that either went up onto the hill or down along the the river. I never tired of walking them.

This went up the hill, not a lot to see up there just granite boulders and pine trees as we went farther there were hundreds of downed trees, some from the timber mill that used to be there and others from winter storms.

This trail led down along the river with views of the water as well as the granite formations that are all over the mountains.

This is what amounts to a beach up in the mountains, it's only about 5 feet wide.

 

Managed to get a picture of one of the trout we always saw jumping after bugs.

Several living trees that were reshaped by the snow during the winter.

Loved all the granite boulder formations, some even formed small caves but they didn't go back very far.

Saw several pines with burl's, but this one was by far the worst of them.

 

There was once a saw mill here and you can still find the garbage dumps as you walk the trails and some of the wood bits they used to move the logs.

We went for a ride in the Rhino one morning and it was quite chilly. This picture had my hubs laughing his butt off at me.

Yep, that's me all bundled up and tryin' to keep warm as we zip down the dirt roads. 

There were lots of places to boondock camp along this area, but there are always hundreds of places to boondock in the Big Horn Mountains and even several campgrounds. But if you need full hookups for camping you might be able to find that at Burgess Junction which is also one of the few places you can get WiFi.

On our way out we had to stop and empty the black and grey water tanks as all self contained camper have to. As we were leaving the dump station someone had left this amazing painted rock by the gate. We left it there for others to enjoy.

 

Hope you all enjoyed our second trip to the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. We spent 8 wonderful days in August enjoying the cooler temps and being out in nature. Unfortunately, now I set at home with snow on the ground, lows in the teens and highs in the thirties, not to mention a head cold that came out of nowhere. Lots of rest and OJ for me.

Take Care Everyone

& Have a Merry Christmas

 

Hugs, Sandy

Big Horn Mountains July 2020

 Here's our first trip to the Big Horn Mountains for this year.

It was a new spot for us, our usual spot was destroyed when they decided to level everything out by bringing out truck loads of slide dirt. Ruined the spot and the dirt could have been put to better use on some of the really ruff roads in the mountains. 

It was a nice enough spot with a pretty view,  

 

 

every day brought horses & deer through the camp, which was nice,

 

 but it also brought COWS.

Big black, rubbing up against everything, tearing apart the fire pit (looking for salt in the wood ash), crapping everywhere COWS.

 

 

Here they are at the fire pit, had to keep our solar panels in the flatbed trailer so they didn't get trampled and the wires semi buried so they didn't get pulled on.

We had to chase them off a couple of times when we felt the 5th wheel shaking from them trying to scratch themselves on it. Once at around 9-10 pm and we were woken up once from the same thing. Because of the cows we most likely won't choose this area again.

 

It was great when the people parked behind our spot showed up, their daughter (maybe 7) was like a mini wrangler getting on her tiny dirt bike and chasing them off, all the while yelling yah, yah, and her little brother (maybe 5) running behind doing the same. That was just too cute and gave us a few chuckles. The parents were always right behind them keeping an eye out.

 

Some other campers showed up and one of their dogs would do the wrangling when he wasn't caught and stopped by his owner.

 

There were a couple of old log cabins in the valley and an old gold mining area.

 

That's all from this trip, only three more trips to post about.

 

Take Care & Stay Safe Everyone

Hugs, Sandy 

 

Was Not Ready For This!

 I'm not at all happy about it, But this was my weekend....

Usually it holds off until close to the last week of the month, but not this year. Possibly more for the coming weekend with temps in the teens and low 20's-30's.

We were not ready for this fluffy white crap and had to scramble to winterize the 5th wheel, get all the freezable stuff from the storage compartments and inside. Took a couple hours for that, then on to the outbuildings and making sure the vehicles were good on the anti-freeze and the sand bags were in the back of the truck.  We still need to cover the Rhino, but the hubs has the keys to the shed with him 40 miles away, oh well, maybe after he gets home tonight.

We wanted to get in a couple of weekend camping trips, but so far it's not looking to promising. Oh well, we'll settle for a few day trips if we have to when the snow melts here and there.

That's for today, so until next post....

Take Care & Stay Safe Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

Thank You

 I just want to stop by and say a very heart felt Thank You to all of you for your sweet condolences on the death of my dear mamma. You all touched my heart.

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

 

 

Sooo Behind

I'm so sorry that I've gotten so far behind on my posts. I need to post on our 6 camping trips and a few rock hounding/hunting adventures. 

I'll try to get my pictures sorted and post about our camping trips soon, since the first ones were at Cottonwood Creek Campground I won't bore you with the same ol' thing since we've camped there the last three years. Hopefully I'll get caught up before the end of the year.

 

First my heartbreaking news.

My mamma passed away on March 29th 2020 so I've been in a bit of a funk off and on since then. She suffered from Dementia and Alzheimer's. 

She was 92, loved her family unconditionally, and had an unwavering faith in God. I miss her every day.

This was from her 90th birthday.

 

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy 

 

Crystal Light Reuse/Upcycle

Hey there everyone, I know it's been a while but I'm still here.

I hope you are well in these very trying times. We try to only go to the store when necessary and always take our masks to wear. 

We've been on three camping trips to Cottonwood Creek Campground in Lovell, Wyoming so far this year and are getting ready to head up to the Big Horn Mountains soon. I love it up there, so relaxing and beautiful views no matter where you are.

No stitchin' mojo to be found anywhere, but I have managed to use my sewing machine a few times so at least there's that.

Do you like those little bottles of Crystal Light to flavor your water, I do to, but hate to throw away those little plastic containers. 

Today I found a use for one.

After popping the top off (just twist it) I rinsed the bottle and the lid out and removed the label. Then I got our large bottle of hand sanitizer and pumped it in and snapped the lid back on. 

Tried it out and it works great and is just the right size to put in my purse. Pretty sure it will also work for hand lotion, so I'll try that with the next one.

That's all for now, so until next post.......

Take Care Everyone &

Stay Safe.

Hugs, Sandy

Using the Dehydrator

Hello Friends; Hope you all are safe & well.

Decided on Tuesday to use our dehydrator & take care of a few left over Red Delicious apples that were getting a bit soft and grainy. So I pulled out the mandolin slicer & made Cinnamon Sugar Apple Slices.

So yummy with just the right amount of sweetness.

Sliced about a 1/4" thick & dipped in lemon juice & water (couldn't find my Fruit Fresh), laid out on the trays and sprinkled with a cinnamon and sugar mix. Into the dehydrator at 145 degrees for roughly 8 hours until dry but pliable.

Working on sewing a few masks to keep in our vehicles for when we have to go to the store to get necessaries. Made two of the pleated style yesterday and will work on a couple of the contoured type and Olson Masks today.

That's it for today, so until next time..... 

Take Care of Yourselves & Be Safe

Hugs, Sandy 

Canning Some Make-Do Supplies

 Hello Friends; I hope and pray you are all stating safe & well. 

My hubs stopped by our semi local CVS pharmacy to pick up some meds a couple weeks back and came across 4-packs of Charmin toilet paper for.....hold on to you knickers.....$10.49!!! 

Good thing we've been stocked up on toilet paper here at the cabin for years. When ever we buy a different brand and don't really care for it, it goes into a plastic storage container with a lid and into the basement.

Needing to clean out the pantry of dried bread heels, I decided to make bread crumbs. I won't have to buy regular bread crumbs from the store for years.

Then I noticed we were out of brown sugar, so I whipped of a batch.

bread crumbs (left) & brown sugar (right)

For the bread crumbs I break the slice apart and put into the food processor and pulse until fine crumbs. I store in mason jars and vacuum seal until needed. My user jar just has a plastic lid. This will make three 1/2 gallon jars stored on the pantry shelf. You can also make the bread crumbs by using a plastic bag or zip-loc and a mallet or rolling pin.

The brown sugar is made using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but you can use any stand or handheld mixer you have. I use setting 1 or 2 and my wire whip attachment.

Put sugar into bowl and add molasses while it is running 1 T. at a time.

4 - 6 cups of white sugar and 1 T. Molasses per cup of sugar then stop, taste, and add more molasses until you get the flavor you want.

This should be stored in an air tight container and will stay soft for 3-6 months.

I keep a using jar and vacuum seal the rest. If it does start to harden up just add a slice of bread or a few crackers and it will soften up in a day or two.

I have sliced apples with cinnamon & sugar in the dehydrator. Better to use it up rather than throw it out.

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

More Canning

It snowed this weekend so we added a few more jars of goodness to the pantry by doing some pressure canning on Saturday.

I was going through our freezer and found 3 years worth of leftover Thanksgiving turkey down in the bottom. 

I think I need to go through the freezer more often.

Batch #1

Batch #2

14 quarts in chicken stock just waiting to be made into hot comforting soup, just need to add veggies and noodles.

 

Hope you all had a Blessed Easter if you celebrate or just an amazing weekend if you don't. Stay safe everyone.

 

Hugs, Sandy

Did Some Canning

Added to my pantry by doing some canning yesterday. 

Picked up a couple of bags of peeled garlic at Costco last month and a bag of baby carrots and didn't want them to go bad, so this is the result.

12 Half Pints of Pickled Garlic.

7 Pints of Pickled Baby Carrots & Garlic Mix.

 

5 Pints of Pickled Garlic.

Pickled Garlic

(for 12 half pints)

2 1/4 c. Vinegar

2 1/4 c. Water

1/4 c. pickling salt

1 T. Pickling Spice

 

1 inch head space. Water bath for 10 min.

You can add 1 t. red pepper flakes for a spicier flavor.

 

For 6 pints increase vinegar & water to 2 3/4 c. each 

and water bath for 15 min.

 

I would like to try the Bread & Butter pickle mix & the Kosher Pickle mix at some point but only for a couple of jars to see if I like it.  

 

That's all for this post, so until next time....

 

Take Care, Stay Safe & Be Well

Hugs, Sandy 

It's Been A While...

It has been a while since my last post, life sure does pass by quickly.

We're staying warm and safe as humanly possible in our small spot in Montana.

 They have closed all bars, breweries, wine tasting houses, and casinos in Yellowstone County and other counties are following suit (glad I don't drink or gamble) and they are limiting restaurants to take out and delivery orders only. All K-12 schools are closed in Montana as of Monday 3/16 until April 26th or longer if needed, on-line classes are sure to follow, all colleges are already going on-line for the rest of the school year. 

I have a doctors appt. on Thursday for a blood draw to check my new new BP meds. It's a small office with far fewer patients than the bigger places.

We're going to do a stock up trip this weekend to add a few necessary items to our pantry stores. Luckily TP is not one of those items, I've had plenty stored in plastic totes for years for just such an occasion. People have gone crazy even here, with the hording of items.

I do plan to sew up a couple of masks before these trips and a few for the hubs to take to work and I also have a large aloe plant and a few bottles of rubbing alcohol on hand if I need to make hand sanitizer, any type of protection is better than none. 

I thank God for our pantry at times like this and after all is done I know there will be quite a bit that will need to be restocked. I'll be taking inventory of our freezer today to see how much is there and what is needed.

Praying you all stay safe and healthy and that this Virus is over soon so our lives can go back to a somewhat normal state. Until next post....

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy