Hiking with kids

For our vacation this year we went to California. It has been 5 years since we were there last (with the kids) and 15 years since we left to move back east. We visited friends and family in San Jose and Santa Cruz and spent a week in the Sierras hiking and camping. It was good to mix up the wilderness experience with the "luxury" of being in the cities.

Our kids are not used to hiking much, especially at altitude, so it was sometimes challenging to get them motivated. We ended up hiking 2-3 miles a day, but saw some amazing scenery. On each hike one or the other kid was usually having an issue so we had to come up with some motivational techniques.

We brought lots of water and snacks on the hikes and sometimes lunch so food was a good motivator- especially when it was the sweet variety. Bill is much better than I am at being playful with the kids so he and Kai came up with a game we called hatbee- basically it's frisbee using Kai's hat. They also had rock- throwing contests into lakes. We did a lot of talking and convincing and sometimes just let them be mad.

All in all we had a great time and bonded as a family. One of the highlights was seeing the Perseid meteor showers at a campsite near Bishop Creek in the eastern Sierra. Next time we want to take a month and drive across the country.

Late Summer- lots of tomatoes

After 3 weeks of vacation, most of the squash and cucumbers have succumbed to the bugs, but I have a few cukes left. Just enough for some yummy salads. The tomatoes are in full swing, and I have canned 13 pints of stewed tomatoes and 5 more pints of enchilada sauce. I'll do crushed tomatoes later this week when I get enough to make it worthwhile to heat up the canner. I also canned a few jars of pickled beets and onions for winter salads and froze several bags of blanched green beans for making turkey and vegetable soups.

For the stewed tomatoes I put large pieces of tomatoes, (peeled and seeds removed), diced onion, and diced peppers into a pot, and cooked them for about 15 minutes. I then canned them in a water bath canner with 2 tbsp of lemon juice per pint to increase acidity.

The enchilada sauce is a recipe from a cookbook I got on one of our trips in the southwest many years ago. I chop onions, Anaheim chili peppers and garlic in a food processor (until very finely chopped or pureed), and then saute them in some olive oil for about 15 minutes. Add cumin, crushed dried oregano, and crushed tomatoes (peeled and seeded) with their juice. The amounts are variable depending on your taste and how much you want to can, but I think the recipe calls for 1 medium onion, 1 cup chopped green chili peppers, 3 cups tomato juice, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp salt. I use fresh garlic and add some of the tomato in with the juice. Simmer the sauce for about 15 minutes. Then I can it in a water bath canner adding 2 tbsp lemon juice per pint for acidity.

The broccoli I planted before vacation is coming along, and some of the lettuce is ready to harvest. It's hot this week so I think I'll go get it this morning before the day heats up too much. If I can rug up some hoops and plastic over the beds, I should be able to extend the greens into the late fall this year so I planted another batch of lettuce a week ago.

The chickens are slowing down their egg production- time to get the light going in the coop I think. We'll probably have a few weeks/months of no eggs this fall and winter when the hens molt. I think next year we'll get a few more chicks to replenish our flock.