We've been doing a lot of travel lately. I think it has something to do with Dave trying to squeeze in as much summer as possible before he gets deep into school work. Two weeks ago we were out at the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. It was a nice break! We arrived around 10:00 at night (we would have gotten there a lot sooner, but I had work emergencies). It was raining and we couldn't find a ranger or a map to direct us to the camp sites.
Finally we turned onto a residential "No Trespassing" road and ran into a ranger that gave us directions. So we set up camp in the rain, lit our pillow on fire, and knocked over our propane lantern messing up the little burner pockets. We were grateful for our air mattresses, because even if our tent leaked we probably wouldn't have gotten too wet. The night was filled with thunder and lightning, but we were snug and didn't get soaked after all.
The rest of the trip was great! We explored the caves (guided by a park ranger with a group of 20), we got ice cream at the lodge, hiked up to a glacier, summited Wheeler's Peak (aka Death March, the tallest one on the right of the picture below), and did every hike that didn't require us to do over night backpacking. The verdict? The cave was gorgeous and definitely worth the trip, but the hiking trails in Zion's is better.
Which leads me to our trip last weekend. We headed down to Zion's with Dave's family! Since everyone's interests are a little different we all participated in various activities including: The Narrows, Emerald Pools, Angel's Landing, Peach Days (in Hurricane), visiting Grandma and Grandpa Yoder and Great Aunt Dorris, having fires in the yard, and just relaxing.
Also there was a farm by Grandma's house that was letting people come pick 200 lbs of free peaches per family. I guess they were done with their harvesting. So while I helped mom clean up the house, some of the family went to pick and got some for us. So we will spend this weekend canning, freezing, and eating peaches! I've decided I want to do peach slices, and I told Angela I would teach her how to make jelly. Sheila and Alison borrowed my canning water bath yesterday to make peach slices themselves, and both Dave's mom and my mom plan to do some canning as well.
Those peaches look amazing! I think peach slices is a great idea. I always freeze extra strawberries and the kids love eating them right out of the freezer. What a great snack! Try putting them single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they're frozen put them in a freezer bag. This way you can eat them individually.
ReplyDeleteThey do look tasty! We've been eating and eating... I've also froze two cookie sheets worth of peaches too (about a gallon bag worth). Unfortunately we don't have a ton of freezer space which is why we'll be canning the majority of them. We can always hide them under the bed or the couch and use them later!
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm. That farm is a "Welfare Farm" owned by the church. We used to have to go work there as kids. All their harvest gets canned and distributed to people in need. I wish I had gotten some!
ReplyDeletePS. I can't believe you still set up camp in the rain.....oh wait, yes I can. You're Amy!