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.

Pruned

I'm so thankful for these roses I bought at Home Depot this year.

They are just in pots, and they finished blooming a while ago, but

we pruned them back a bit, cutting off the dead blossom,

and they are budding again.

And sometimes you have to realize that God takes seasons of our lives where we aren't looking very beautiful. 

Nothing blossoming exactly.

Just pruning and waiting going on.

In the middle of dentist appointments and vet appointment and hours of work on just a table,

and rearranging a room for a different bed to try to solve back and neck and pain issues,

there are quiet moments to reflect.

Nothing wrong with taking a few moments to slow down and to cease being a workaholic.

Doing good sometimes includes taking a break before you break. 

Taking a moment to enjoy that blooming bachelor's button the girls planted in their raised bed.

And to observe the rose about to bloom--

and knowing that there is hope in your future, too.

The girls' tomatoes and cucumber

And potatoes and marigold.

Don't you Pennsylvanians make fun of our enormous gardens.

Doesn't this sight just leave you wishing?

Okay, yep, I'm going to go to bed soon, too!

Summer Days at the Lucas Ranch

Well, I uploaded these pictures a couple days ago, so I'll try to caption them--specially for Crystal who will be spending hours in airports on her way home from six weeks in Africa. She emailed yesterday saying they would be starting to travel back from their 4 weeks of Bible selling in Namibia to South Africa.

At home here, the children are enjoying picking lettuce and sometimes beets.

And the boys collect frogs sometimes.

And the girls insisted on making apple pies--with blueberries. Mmm.

We've had lots of corn on the cob, and Crystal will be glad we've done all the work of freezing corn!

Since the nice fountain Jonathan got me last year broke, he bought me another one. And two Saturdays ago the girls and I arranged our deck so that it is pretty now even though it is still unfinished. 

I've asked for it to be finished hopefully this summer as I think that eight years unfinished is long enough.

I love this washtub overflowing with flowers.

Jonathan taking a rare turn reading to the younger ones their bedtime story.

Minding the goats who find pasture in the yard sometimes.

One of the goats was having a problem which required an herbal salve which, when I tried to order it, was out of stock. So I found a recipe online and helped Carrie figure out how to make it ourselves.

We decided to use it on both goats, since the second one was limping. (Today the vet couldn't even tell for sure what was wrong, sending Sam home with no answer, just a nearly $50 bill.) 

The tricky part was applying it.

Even the chickens were curious.

At least the salve smelled wonderful. 

Goat licked my hand!

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And one big project this summer was to try to refinish our poor oak table which was so worn through in places. All of us older ones in the family helped with scraping, sanding, staining, sealing and varnishing. 

This is how Carrie did it.

Daddy applying stain to the last corner.

Cat trying to make sure Mom doesn't set him to work, too!

One evening after family worship, Jonathan and I spent a bit of time enjoying this book from the library,

Amish Proverbs.

 

"A woman's work is not seen unless it's not done."

"Kissing wears out, cooking don't."

"Raising boys is as easy as digesting iron."

"If you let your children have their own way,

you must not complain if they give you trouble."

**

"Teaching children to count is fine,

but teaching them what counts is better."

"The most important things in your home are people."

"If parents don't train their children, the children will train the parents."

"If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't been in bed with a mosquito."

And I loved this one: "Be like the teakettle:

when it's up to its neck in hot water, 

it sings."

And so we try to take a moment at the end of the day to drink in the beauty of a sunset,

because a woman's work is never done anyway.

So the dirty socks are still in the sink, only half of them scrubbed out;

the dishes are done, and the table is finally back in place after days of being on the deck while the layers of sealer and polyurethane were being applied and dried. 

The mopping waits for tomorrow; the dust is still on the piano.

And once again, for a few minutes, 

with a daughter on the other side of the world wondering what's going on at home,

Mom blogs.