Category: Vacation

Vacation Week

11/11/2016

Hubby had the week off!

So we took school off too... isn't it grand when you can do such a thing?

First job...fix up the trailer... cut up some old carpet to give us a warm floor, fixed up the hole that a bear thought we needed this summer, and water proofed the tenting. The lad and our student did the carpet, with me providing moral and occasional instructional assistance while helping hubby with the rest.

Then we headed out camping. We camped Tuesday and Wednesday nights at Valens Conservation area. A good half way point between home and Toronto. I enjoyed a couple of walks, one solo and one with the lad.

We had a great time at the Royal, we saw lots, laughed, cheered and groaned, and were occasionally amazed. It was good to see life through the eyes of a visiting lad and to see the joy in another lad.

And Friday we had hope days. Children making, creating, doing art.   FUN. Pokemon Going with Dad in the park, and having a good supper together.

Tomorrow our student is busy all day with the youth group and then going out to a movie with friends.   We are doing karate with our son and then probably heading out as well.

While I've been away I've had some posts up on the blog

Word Prompt Posts
FMF: Common.
Outside
Colour.

General Posts:
Art Series: Art Play.
Field Trip: Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory.
Recipe: Apple Pandowdy
Hymn Study: There is a Fountain Filled With Blood.

Reviews:
Marie Curie for Kids.
One of the Few.

Devotional
So Turn and Live. Devotion on Ezekiel 18
Two Eagles, a Willow, The Lord Speaks.   Devotion on Ezekiel 17
Remember.   Devotion on Ezekiel 16 (last few verses)
The Amazing Love of God.   Sunday Sermon on Romans 5:6-11

Linking up to the folks below

Hobo Stew - my style

8/25/2016

I make hobo stew pretty much the way I make many things.

Have a good idea of what you want, and toss together what you think will get you to that end.

I like making hobo stew in a fire, but we were in a restricted fire ban time at the campground so having a good fire was a no go.   We used the next best thing...our dutch oven and some coals.

I had some ground beef (about 1.5 lbs)
Some potatoes, carrots and canned corn.
We had a touch of onion left from hubby's hamburgers.

I cubed the potatoes and sliced up the carrots.   Tried to make the pieces about equal.    Didn't totally succeed.

Browned the beef, added the onion and some seasonings.   Added some water.
Let that cook a bit.
Then added the potatoes. About six cut up
Let that cook a bit.
Then added the carrots and the corn. About four big carrots and one can of corn.
Let that cook a bit.
Added some more seasoning.   For seasoning with used garlic salt and a mixed seasoning mix.

All told it cooked about 2 hours, and when we had it most of the potatoes were soft though not all, we saved those for the second serving.

It tasted great. :)

Python Dogs and Sun Bread

8/17/2016

Do you know what I learned when I went camping?
I learned to make bread! YES!!! Me....who rarely if ever makes bread. I made bread!

First off you need to make a sun box. The size of the box can vary as long as it can hold the rack that your bread pan will sit on and big enough for the coals.

i have to admit the instructions I found where none to clear and when I printed them off they were even more unclear with lots of misspellings and random characters (which if I had had time to check before leaving to camp I would have retried but I grabbed my bunch of recipes and instructions off the printer as I ran out the door).

Instructions:
One box. make sure it will easily fit the rack you are using.
one roll of aluminum foil.   I used regular strength.
then either Sticky spray that will hold down the foil OR aluminun tape (comes in a roll like duct tape).

1. remove the top of the box. Either attach it to the bottom of the box OR to one of the long sides. The picture wasn't clear and the instructions horrid. I did it to the side of the box. And truth be told I didn't attach it, just laid it on top.   It fit nicely.   The box I used was the chips box.

2. Cover the box COMPLETELY will aluminum foil. Use tape/spray liberally. You want it completely covered. No box showing as that would be a FIRE HAZARD! Shiney side facing out NOT in.

3. Once that is done say YEAH!!!!   The hardest part is finished.

Now some hints.
If you put the extra layer on the bottom the sun will help provide heat (if it's a sunny day) to cook the top of the bread.   Doing this will give you a loaf with a very light shading of brown.
OUR site was a shady one...one small patch of sun that moved and then disappeared so I did mine on the side so the heat of the coals would radiate off the top of the box and cook the bread that way.

Make your dough. We used three recipes total in our bread making ventures.

First two loaves I made was Irish Soda bread. VERY easy to do.

Ingredients and Instructions

4 cups flour (I used a fibre flour so needed a touch more liquid for the first loaf, regular flour for the second loaf)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk

Mix it all together (first the dry then add the liquid).

Form into loaf (I used disposal pie plates) OIL THEM FIRST!

Cut a cross into the top, it's traditional and it allows the bread to expand.

Let it sit the ten minutes it takes to get your coals hot in the chimney. You'll need about 14 of them.

Takes about half hour to cook. If a coolish day you might want to add a sleeve of aluminum foil to the top of the box and drape it down to contain the heat.

This bread stores well wrapped in tea towels.

Third and fourth loaf was a yeast recipe bread. Also very easy to do.

3 1/4 cup flour
1 pkt dry active yeast
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 1/2 warm water.

First time I let the yeast sit in the water for five minutes and then added the remaining ingredients (mixed together first).
Second time I just mixed everything together without letting it sit first.

JUST SO YOU KNOW you get a lighter loaf if you let the yeast sit for a bit first. :)

So you have it mixed, now let it sit in a warm spot for an hour (we used the vehicle as it naturally gets warm in the sun).   Punch it down and then shape it by tucking it in (form a circular shape and pull the dough from the center tucking it under neath).

First time we followed the instructions, preheating a dutch oven and cooking it take way. Just so you know... NOT A GOOD METHOD!!!!   A preheated dutch oven is VERY difficult to work with!!!

Next time I just cooked it in the sun oven and it turned out great though I got distracted the last five minutes so it got a touch darker than it should have.   Still tasted good.

Fresh bread lasts two days when camping before it moulds so eat it quickly.

This bread does best stored in a bag, large ziplocs work well for this.

The last recipe I made was really versatile.
It is I THINK supposed to be for making tortillas or wraps or something like that but we played around with it.

INGREDIENTS
4 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp melted butter (we used oil)
2 cups milk (used almond milk as it travels and stores well)

1 cup flour (or thereabouts)

cooking oil

Mix first five ingredients together (first dry and then adding wet).

Flour your working area with the remaining flour...not all the flour at once, just a bit at a time so you can work with the dough. The flour helps you flatten and shape it.

Now you have a choice to make.
Make it super thin and cook on a slightly oiled fry pan like a tortilla.
OR make thin strips and wrap around a hot dog, chocolate bar, or other such items and drop into a hot oil pan.
OR make into thin wedges and turn them into crispy chips cooked in the hot oil
OR make them into thicker pieces like indian fry bread (great with honey, jam) or if you slice into them like pitas into peanut butter-jam sandwiches.

PLAY around with it. Lots of fun. My son said they were great wrapped around starburst candies.

NOTE: when wrapping them around something... you want to use less flour so it's kinda sticky so you can mould all the pieces together.

As you can see, it was a bit of a learning curve. We called the wrapped hotdogs PYTHON dogs. My son likes snakes, and pythons can swallow things whole, and they wrap around their prey. :)

This bread stores REALLY REALLY well and became our go-to for our final days of camping.

I STRONGLY advise caution while working with hot coals and a sun oven.
Mind where you sit and what you are working on, lest you have a fall and have hot coals hand where they aught not land. You don't want to deal with a burn while camping. :)

Field Trip: Royal Winter Fair

11/30/2014

A couple of weeks ago we pulled our international student out of school for a couple of days. We were heading off to Toronto. We spent one day at the Royal Winter Fair and another at the Toronto Zoo. We camped at Valens Conservation Area while we were there.

It was kinda fun, my hubby is a member of a camping site on-line and so he knows alot of camping folks. We met some people he knows and they graciously gave us some wood and came over to our site to share an evenings fire with us. :) As we sat around the fire we had an unlikely guest. My son spent a lot of time trying to convince this feline to come closer and at one point thought to pounce on in order to catch, but I nixed that idea rather quickly as wild cats, bites/scratches not a thought I was willing to entertain. But he had fun coaxing it and discovering he/she was hungry enough to eat most anything offered. As long as one stayed at a safe distance away.

So off we went to the Royal Winter Fair.

We had a lovely day.
I brought home four pieces of smoked fish like a do every year. :) They always have this great northern Ontario section that we love to browse.

We took in the Renaissance Theatre presentation.

Our student is not a huge cheese can but he managed to find some cheese at the cheese tasting that he enjoyed. We wandered the various booths and saw some rather large pumpkins. I liked the look of the different squash they had displayed. The butter sculptures were well done this year as well.

I loved going to the poultry show where I tred to get some good pictures of chickens for my picture frame. I grew up on a farm and one of my jobs was to take care of the chickens. I still really like chickens and would love to have a flock running about.

The highlight was attending the free horse show in the afternoon. This was a speed challenge and had Ian Millar sowing with one of his children, as well as other Horsey People names I recognized. :) It was hard to get good shots of the speed jump class.

It was a good day out. we were tired by day's send. when we got back Jim visited the camp office and asked if we could leave our trailer there next day since one of the brakes was locking up and he didn't want to drag it through Toronto traffic. They were gracious to us and allowed us to do that. Partly because the campground was not busy. :) I will talk about our trip to the zoo in another post. :)

Books read on vacation

8/31/2014

I thought I'd take a moment to talk about some of the books I read while we were on vacation in July. This will not be a complete list (as I read children's books as well). But it will be a good part of my list. :)

I found this book to be a fascinating read as I followed the separate lives of a special agent and some geriatric men with interesting skills.

The interplay and the mystery totally fascinated me and kept me reading through a day (while the boys were out fishing).

Excellent book. If you like a good mystery with interesting characters, this will suit you nicely. :)

It has been a while since I read a good Dick Francis novel. This one was compelling. I found myself wanting to know the old man's secret (who was the cornish boy). The characters were interesting, centered around the horse track, I found myself even wanting to watch the movie the main character was developing. :) Good book.

I think I have read every J. Kellerman book out there, and have liked all but one. One just freaked me out. This one did not. It was a good read from the first page.

Good mystery, Alex Delaware working with Milo, being excellent on the case. Figuring out what the involvement of another therapist is all about. And in the end.. the bad guy is caught.

No freaking out of me! :) A good thing that. Who needs bad dreams? :)

I haven't read a whole lot of Iris Johansen books, but if they are all like this one, I'll be looking for more of them. Silver was a fascinating character, Kerry an interesting one, the bad guy was very bad and I just wanted him to be caught and quickly. Just the way a good mystery novel should be don't you think? :)

This is the first Krich novel I've ever read, and it was as billed "a novel of suspense". I found myself learning information I had before. I found myself intrigued by the "why" behind the story line. Just an interesting book to read.

The characters were good, quite believable, and we find there are hidden facts behind characters. Dead or alive.

The good is just well written and I will hopefully be back for more.

I have to admit, I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I wasn't constantly comparing this Temperance Brennan with the TV show. It was a total distraction for me.

None-the-less, a well written book, with intriguing characters with an ending and reasoning I didn't expect.

Throughout the story we find Tempe trying to extricate herself from an unwilling imprisonment. So everything in the book happens before she was kidnapped. It was an intriguing way of telling the story.

I finally FINALLY found the first book were Eve meets Roarke. I've read Robb's other books with these characters and knew there was a story behind it but hadn't found the first one. Now, I know the story and my life is complete (not really) but it's good to know the start of it all.

The book itself.. a good mystery. We know who the bad guy is from the start, and now it's just a matter of tracking him down. Dealing with political pressures, finding about family sins, and watching good police work in action. Good book.

Later today I hope to make a list of what I am currently reading, for reviews, for pleasure, with my boy and such like. We'll see how the day goes on shall we? :)

The sights and sounds of a vacation

8/13/2014

We travelled this summer up to Half way Lake Provincial Park for two weeks of rest and relaxation this summer. We took along a friend of our son and had a very good time. :)

The boys had a good time at the beach... building castles/forts, moats, creating shark pits (by catching minnows) and generally just having a good time.

The fellows went fishing a time or two. They explored the lake (my son mapped it out). They discovered a place they called blueberry island (due the amount of blueberries on it). They tried their hand at fishing (for the most part unsuccessfully BUT success was had everyone caught at least one fish). :)

Food around a campfire ranging from cake to smores in a cone to hashbrowns with corned beef. Mmm... I get hungry just thinking about it all. :)

A camping trip with two critter loving boys wouldn't be a complete trip without catching us up some critters. Enjoy the slide show below. :)

All in all two lads had a great deal of fun.

We also spent time at Science North, but that will be in another post. :)

Cheers! :)

Vacation Part Three: Build a frog habitat

8/18/2013

First you need the frogs (which will give you inspiration)

here the lad is looking for frogs

First you start with a small container and then release that won't keep the frogs happy very long. So then you bug your mom to help you figure out something better.

We did. :)

I had a blue bucket we were using for our craft/game materials, so we repurposed it for the rest of our vacation time. It became the frog house.

step one, fill with dirt, about two inches worth.

Step two, get distracted by a chipmunk paying us a visit. Here he's stealing a cherry pit.

add wet and dry areas. We have a mini pod, things to hide under (ferns and we added some bark), tree branches to climb in, and rocks to sit on.

Step Four: cover with a towel to help frogs feel safe AND to contain the tons of bugs we found for them to eat. Grasshoppers, moths, ugly bugs.

what the habitat looked like when finished.

this green frog looks content doesn't he?

The lad caught most of these in some small ponds around the campsite.

90% of what we caught were green frogs.

Here's another green frog, just enjoying his mini frog habitat.

can you see the difference between the wood frog and the green frog? we also caught a couple of mink frogs. The wood frog was often caught sitting in our mini trees. :)

On the second last day of camping we went out late at night and we caught this fine fellow. A bufo americanis (american toad).

Mr. Toad here was named Halfway Dynamic Earth. He actually made the trip home with us, where he proved to be an adept escape artist. He's around home somewhere... He was a big fellow.

Our Vacation Part two: Osprey Heights Trail

8/18/2013

We made the spontaneous decision to take Osprey Heights Trail.
It taught us an important lesson. Putting on BUG SPRAY before taking a trail is a very good idea. :) The mosquitos very much loved us, though loved me less than it did Hubby. He kept moving quickly. In fact, for most of the trail, this is what I saw in front of me.

Yes indeed, empty trail.... like I was the only one out there. I would occasionally holler out if I got to a tricky spot and the lads would answer me "go right, or climb over the tree or whatever other advice they had to offer".

There are times I think I'm a bit odd. I have this thing for taking pictures of Fungi and other small plants that I find. I didn't find any red fungi on this trail, but it was fun looking. :)

Osprey Heights Trail has a lookout point. The lads waited for me there. :)

There were blueberries...oh the fun we had picking and eating blueberries.

we enjoyed the fresh blueberries as we walked trails, with our breakfast and just as a snack. Mmm... wild blueberries... just yummy. :)

I was pleasantly surprised by this large rock wall as we walked along

This is a spot where the lad came running back to say MOM, come see this!

The spiders nest on the rock wall, with all the green mosses I thought was just neat to look at.

The trail went up and down, over rocks, around trees, through damp cool areas and then up high to beautiful vistas. It was a great walk. Took us about an hour to cover the whole thing. Much of the walk I was by myself and it was so quiet. I occasionally heard birds saying and heard small critters chattering. Such a peaceful time except for the "HUN, you alright?" Hollers I would hear (which don't get me wrong, were good as it meant my man was watching out for me) and the slap at mosquitos. Just lovely. I wouldn't hesitate to go back here again some day. Next year we might go more east though.

A walk wouldn't be a walk with my lad if we didn't stop to look at bugs. And watching bugs while getting blueberries....what more could an eight year ask for?

there was this large span of rock. I actually needed help getting up here as the step up was rather large. but it was neat. Someone had built some inukshuks, and the lichens were quite visible...it gave me lad a chance to be a bit of a goob as well. :)

I think this all gives you a taste of the beauty of God's creation that we experienced. It was just so very very lovely. :)

Our Vacation: Part One: Set Up

8/18/2013

When hubby dear asked me what I wanted to do for vacation this year, I said... why don't we head up north? We could go to Sudbury or something. He doesn't much like paying reservation fees so we headed up hoping for the best. In the process I did some browsing and learned there was only ONE site available so I reserved it... Like who wants to drive for eight hours to find nothing available???? We ended up at Halfway Lake Provincial Park. The roads up were under construction so that made a somewhat bumpy ride up,... but for a smooth ride home again. :)

Our site was located where you could see the road but that was really no mattering for us, we didn't hear the traffic all that much and besides...it didn't stop the red squirrels and Chipmunks from coming to see us.

First thing my son did once we got all set up was to make a minion play area. He spent a great deal of time with his minions. They made treasure spots and water towers and a house and a forest and just so many things. Working in the gravel was so much easier and more forgiving than digging in dirt. It worked really well for him. The minions LOVED their pond as well. :)

Normally I take a picture of how I set up my kitchen tent as well, as each year I do it differently as I seek to improve how to do it. BUT I failed to do that this year. One thing we added this year was a folding table. On that table I was able to put all our canned goods which makes it so easy to find what you are looking for and it doesn't attract wild animals to your site.

Here's a picture of some of the construction we needed to drive through. You do know we live in Ontario where we have two seasons... winter and construction. :)