Mountain Magic

Last weekend we were able to squeeze in two days of camping in the mountains.

It was just a simple time away--no money spent except for gas and paying a neighbor to take care of our animals. 

We camped in the Wet Mountains down south of us.

We had spent a few days without a kitchen table as we were refinishing it. 

We scraped, stained, sealed and then put on polyurethane three times.

Just before we left, Jonathan and Sam put on a final coat and brought it back into the house. Then we didn't have to be in the house the next couple days while it aired.

On the way down, we stopped at Iva's place to drop off something.

I loved her nasturtiums and morning glory at the corner of the house. 

And of course her Krissy.

Jonathan lit our propane frig while there.

Having worship the next morning where we camped by a stream.

We found a beaver pond where there were ducks.

Rose and the younger boys fished.

Danny was so excited to catch one fish!

Starting out on a hike

Looking all through the woods for mushrooms--and finding scads of them.

Most of them we weren't sure of, though, so Jonathan crossed the road and they hunted around the aspen and sure enough found a few boletes.

Jonathan happy with what he found--except they turned out mostly wormy. Yuck.

Different times we'd find a few strawberries.

The first one Jonathan found he handed to me.

So the first one I found, I handed to him!

Our family is at least as happy with these simple little pleasures as we would be spending the day--and several hundred dollars--at some entertainment place with all kinds of rides. 

There is something about finding a tiny, tender wild strawberry packed with sweetness.

The commercially grown ones can't compete--

anymore than some artificial, decked out,  puffed up woman can compete 

with a sweet, humble virtuous one. 

There's simply no comparison.

Around the campfire the second evening

Morning surprised us with a herd of cows curious about these prairie visitors.

The night before we'd seen these cows a long ways away, with a couple herds of elk nearby them as well.

Jonathan found a couple puff balls which are edible.

Your just have to make sure you eat them before they start turning into a bunch of brown powder, as this one has started to turn.

While the four older children hiked Green Horn Mountain, the rest of us went mushroom hunting. 

Talk about being excited when we found these big king boletes.

Here's a little bitty king bolete--considered one of the finest and best mushrooms.

We also learned that these "hawk's wings" mushrooms are edible. Jonathan ate part of a small one and neither got sick nor died, so I guess it's true they are okay. 

There were gobs of these throughout the woods, and there are no look-alikes that are poisonous, so 

it's pretty safe to identify these as edibles.

The children way up on top of part of Green Horn Mountain or its kin.

We were in a hurry to leave, so Jonathan got a family photo minus himself and Crystal who is still in Africa

probably enjoying elephants and zebras and giraffes while we wander around the piney woods and think meadow flowers are fascinating.

Here is one huge thistle head.

Hmmm. What kind of devotional thought can I get out of that?

We ate lunch by a beaver pond, near which a family of four children had camped.

The children were riding a mini four-wheeler like maniacs, riding on the wrong side of the road around this bend, etc. We watched the boy (maybe 10 or 12 years old) fight his sister for a turn and then brag about how she should watch him drive the thing. We watched the boy almost get killed when a truck came flying around the bend and the boy swerved his four-wheeler just in time. He went zigzagging on, and the next thing we heard a scream and his parent went tearing up the bank to go rescue him from his disaster.

He must have rolled it and they thought he had broken his leg. 

They said he had broken two rules--not wearing a helmet and riding like a maniac.

It was a mercy he only had an injured leg and wasn't killed. 

Jonathan took down our first aid kit, and here our family is walking back, sobered at the boy getting what he deserved for his foolish and mean behavior. 

It was a chance for us to talk to our children about how to treat four-wheelers--and each other.