Fourth Annual Hay Ride at the Lucas Ranchette

Last week we had our fourth (I think) annual hay ride for youth and young at heart--folks from church and other acquaintances. We always enjoy when someone new comes. It is a chance to reach out.

I could not get very good pictures in the dusk. Below you can see all the quilts that were brought to help keep warm! About 32 people were here, besides our family. A second hayride was after the meal, and I went on that. But it didn't last long, because it rained! Then we got home again, the rain quit, and the children begged to go again. So Jonathan obliged them.

This is Jonathan's plate of desserts. There were to be prizes for the most healthy, most creative, and most delicious dishes brought (all of which also had to have pumpkin or apple as one ingredient), so I needed help judging. Jonathan was told by someone else to take "a little" of each dessert. "A little?" he gasped. He took a nice amount of each. He doesn't get sick on sugar like I do. I took one bite of about five different desserts and had to stop on the fourth. By the way, Naomi French's dessert won the prize for most delicious. Crystal's molded applesauce jello (made with organic applesauce and filled with fresh kiwi) earned the prize for most healthy, though it was hard to decide between that and the pumpkin pie Carrie made (made with pumpkin-from scratch) and the pumpkin dessert Marlene Reynolds made. The children had made molded candies from white chocolate, using different colors and fall designs, and Steve Cunningham voted them the most creative. 

Below Carrie is making the crusts for her pumpkin pies. We just steamed the pumpkin (actually winter squash which is more orange than pumpkin) which a friend had given us, and put it through the Foley food mill.

Below is the bouquet of rosehips that I picked by the road, for a centerpiece, since I had to rush home from town instead of doing the last minute shopping for the hay ride. I had to rush back home because Jonathan had forgotten that I needed to be home to sign for a shipment of plumbing and things for a job he is doing. I pulled into the driveway at the same time as the delivery truck arrived! After that, we just had to make do with what we had instead of having a boughten centerpiece or autumn-themed paper plates. But I didn't think a pot of boughten mums could have been more fall-ish than these red rosehips on thorny, green-leaved stems in an orange basket.

Below is the big basket of harvest vegetables we placed by our front door. Huge cabbages, green and red peppers and onions we had bought at the pumpkin stand in town. The beets, turnips, carrots and potatoes came from our own gardens!

Below is the arrangement the girls made on the other side of the door. Timmy bought his own pumpkin to carve some leaf shapes in, and he put a little candle inside, which was very cozy looking in the darkness.

Bible Study on Noah's Ark

Some friends of ours recommended that we go sometime to see the Noah's Ark replica that Larry Grabill has built. He uses it for Bible studies and unique witnessing opportunities in the Pueblo Reservoir. Here we are going down the sidewalk to the dock at the reservoir. Can you see the ark? We couldn't until we got to the very end of the dock.

And there it was! It is a scale of 1 to 10. The Grabills are in the stern.

Here is the other end of it. Can you see the little animals in the windows? This ark caught a lot of attention even while we were on board. Other boaters sailed very slowly by, staring and taking pictures.

I saw this sign below actually on another boat, but it served the purpose to make an interesting addition to this blog at this point!

All of us had to wear life jackets. Here we all are below, with Mrs. Grabill and her mother, waiting for another family to come to join the Bible study. Something happened that they never did show up. While we were waiting, Mr. Grabill told us how that this family had taken in a girl from a foreign country who had been in very unfortunate circumstances, and he had had the privilege only a few weeks earlier of leading her to Christ. It was an amazing story. 

Rose and Timmy look out over the reservoir as we float along. 

The children loved riding out on the prow.

Riding "Noah's Ark" in Pueblo Reservoir

Here are some of Noah's animals by the window!

Each of the children had a turn navigating the ark.

"Father Noah" lets "Father Lucas" take over the steering for a bit.

Jonathan helping to try to grab the "ark" to help bring it to a safe landing at the dock.

After the ark experience, we went to Aunt Iva's for a simple lunch and visited the afternoon away. The boys played checkers in the bedroom where Kenn has been making a checkerboard wooden floor.

Danny had a very unusual birthday! His daddy stayed home for his special day, and we decided to go for a load of hay from a farm near the town of Elizabeth. Just for fun, everyone decided to go along.  

The day ended up different than we expected! We spent quite a while just finding the right farm, but in the process of asking directions, found another farmer who had cow hay for much less than what the hay cost that we were looking for. So after picking up a stack of hay for our goats, we headed off to find the next farm that had older hay that we could use for our cows.

Sammy and the farmer getting ready to throw a big bale of hay onto the trailer. I don't know what we would do without our strong son.

In between farms, we went to Elisabeth to grab some sandwich fixings since our 3-hour escapade for hay turned into more like seven hours! We also visited the very cute antique shop there in town. It is the cutest place I ever saw! We did buy a couple things for a dollar!  Then we had to rush home to get supper on for our little boy who was turning five years old. Grandma and pa came to celebrate with us! We ended up using brownies that someone had given us the day before, for a cake! And since Danny had leftovers of a croupy cough, no one wanted him blowing all over their cake! So--we put his five candles in his piece of brownie, and was he ever happy!

Crystal took a picture of this beautiful pot of tri-colored fall mums that Jonathan brought home for me. He said he just knew I would love them, and I did! We set a couple winter squash by it that we'd been given from neighbors.

Below you see Rosie who has started a new dress, working on a second sewing machine since Carrie was sewing a new jumper on the main sewing machine.

Yesterday Jonathan found sweet red peppers for two for a dollar and brought us home lots to freeze. Those were huge peppers! The little children kept gobbling pieces! They loved finding little miniature peppers inside the big ones. Danny came in and chortled to his daddy, "Daddy, those big daddy peppers had baby peppers inside them!" We got a big laugh out of that.

Here is Hannah enjoying being part of the pepper-freezing bash.

Fishing

One Monday morning Steve Cunningham came very early to take Sammy and Timmy fishing with him in the mountains. Here is what they got that day!

Steve is showing the children how to clean fish. Then we fried fish to eat.

Below you see the children conducting a science experiment. We purchased several science kits for school this year, and this one is a miniature volcano. You can see the red "lava" bubbling out of the "mountain." The children had a very good time doing this experimetnt.

Sorry this picture is not very clear. We are on the cedar, Amish-made porch swing that I bought for our anniversary.

Here is one of those double rainbows we often see from our windows in the summer.

Pictures from Jonathan's Camera

Here are Sammy and Danny riding the chairlift up to the top of the alpine slide.

Sammy flying down the slide.

Mom zooming down the coaster! Can you believe it??

Jonathan said he wanted to give me a "real" ride. Hmmm. I knew very well that meant a very, very fast ride, but I took him up on it. It was so fun. These cars are made so you can take two.

Here the next day the children are sorting their gem stones they got at the gemstone panning site at the fun park.

Fun at Breckenridge

Sammy is arriving into sight in the very middle of the photo on the coaster, new this summer at the Breckenridge fun park. Jonathan decided to treat the children to a day of rides for all their hard work this summer, especially for holding the fort for us different times when we needed to get away. This was one of our favorite rides. You could go REALLY fast and know you were safe, strapped into the cart that is fastened safely to the coaster. If you look very carefully, you can see the mom of this crew coming down to the end of the coaster ride! I didn't have a lot of energy, but I did manage a couple alpine slide rides, and two of these coaster rides, plus two more with Jonathan! You can fit two people on these carts. It was fun being pulled up the mountain in the carts on a cable, and then coasting VERY FAST back down the mountainside. I was a little dizzy after Jonathan coasted us down, and he didn't even let it go quite as fast as he could have. There are controls so you can control the speed.

As for me, when I came down the other alpine slide, I came rather slowly, enjoying the daisies and chipmunk and just the peace and quiet. The second time I came down faster just because you are supposed to do it fast. I decided I liked it more slowly. I am allowed to like something different than others. I am allowed to go slowly. I am allowed to be me. And you are allowed to be you, too.
Hannah wasn't old enough for any of the rides, but she was allowed to ride the chairlift up the mountain to nearly the top where we took a short hike through pines and alpine meadows. I think that was one of my favorite parts of the day. Jonathan got this picture of the ones of us who went up. Those alpine meadows were full of different colors of flowers.

Hannah loved playing in the water here at the "Pan for Gold" spot. A bag of dirt is poured into the screening pan, and the children wash the dirt out in the water. In the dirt are found several little "gemstones." Danny is inspecting what kind he got. All these activities were included in the day pass. I may be able to get more pictures posted later, from Jonathan's camera.

Pines and a very special Posy!