Spring Canyon (Wednesday)

Wednesday is the "Family Day Away" from the camp. We decided first to venture to St. Elmo. It's an old mining town. There's not much to it, but there is a colony of chipmunks who will eat right out of your hand. There's some pretty good scenery, too!

Our first stop was at the outhouse.
This was the sign on the side of the building. Umm...

Colorado is so beautiful! Pictures do not do it justice.

 

There were so many hummingbirds. Look at the tiny birdie feet!

 

The chipmunks are SO cute!

Again, some Colorado loveliness.

We stopped by Cascade Falls on the way back to camp. Lots of fun and beauty all around.

 

Yeah...don't do that again.

 Eating lunch in the park in Buena Vista.

Orange juice, anyone?

No trip to Spring Canyon is complete without a trip to K's Ice Cream shop. We went there on Wednesday AND Friday!

We were missing Katee, so Logan gave her a call
while he ate his ice cream. :)

 There was a talent show that night. This was a whole choir of girls singing "Let It Go" from Frozen.

 Logan and Ben sang Beware the Homeschoolers. It was their public singing/guitar playing debut.

Spring Canyon (Saturday-Tuesday)

Spring Canyon is a very special place for our family. It's a family camp owned and operated by Officer's Christian Fellowship. The mission of Spring Canyon is to minister to military families. They call it a "Vacation with a Purpose." Being there gives us an opportunity to reconnect as a family, to her some good teaching, to fellowship with other families and to enjoy the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.

Here are some highlights from our week:

                   

We requested to stay in the Yale cabin. There are more modern accommodations, but we love this little space.








The view from the front of our cabin. This is Mount Princeton. We are going to climb it next year.

Nate was baptized on Monday. We are so thankful he has joined the family of God.
(That water is 48 degrees. He's a brave boy!)




We had a square dance on Tuesday night. It was SO. MUCH. FUN!



There's lots of time to chat with friends.

 

 





Mowing

We are still learning the best system for keeping the yard mowed. This is The Happy Farmer's latest technique. :)

Big News...We Think

The House on the Hilltop has many trees. Lots and lots of them have some sort of fruit that looks like this:

They are obviously not ripe yet and have some sort of pit. We think they are cherries. Can anyone verify this? If they are...MAN, are we going to have to learn to make jam! We will want to share and it looks like we might be able to share with the entire neighborhood.  

We let the chickens out today to enjoy some of the mulberries that had fallen to the ground. They weren't too excited to be out until they discovered all of the loveliness the yard had to offer. They liked the fruit and the bugs and the dirt. They were happy little nuggets!

The little ones in the back settled down into the dirt and took a nap.

These girls got tired of eating off the ground and started pulling mulberries right off the tree.

This is our little bantam rooster, "Cogburn."

This is Phylllis. Or Phil. We're not sure if she's a she or a he.

Phylllis ate so many mulberries, her beak is all purple.



We also discovered that our apple tree has some baby apples. Hannah discovered them. I had looked at the tree, but somehow missed the fruit.

Hannh said, "If that's an apple tree, then that's an apple!"
How. Did. I. Miss. That?

Golden Delicious?

Busy, productive day. The House on the Hilltop is a lot of work, but there's such potential for sharing what is produced here. We have no idea what we're doing, but learning sure is fun!

We are so thankful for the two families who lived here before us. They were intentional with every detail of this place. May we steward it well for as long as we live here.

Fruit

We are forever discovering fun new things about the House on the Hilltop.

Yesterday, Logan was clearing some brush and branches in an area near the barn. It seemed that he was in a tangle of dead vines that should be completely cut down. What he discovered put a halt to the clearing and made me SO happy!

Logan discovered grapes! The tangled mess is grapevine. Some is alive and some is dead. We aren't sure how to trim, but will do some research and find out. Eric would like the area cleared, but he's willing to protect the grapes because I am so excited about them. I think we have grapes in some more places also. I'm headed out tomorrow to investigate.

 

We knew there were pear trees on the property. I have only seen one, and it really needs some pruning, but there's life in it. There's one baby pear.

 

 

 Further down the hill is a very large tree with a fuzzy, round fruit on it. Is this a peach?

 

 

We have about a million mulberry trees. We are going to let the chickens out tomorrow under one of them that has dropped a lot of fruit already. They will be happy little nuggets to discover mulberry treats. I can't wait to watch!

 

Anyone have a recipe for mulberry jam? Anyone want to pick mulberries? Come on over!

 

 

The Happy Farmer made a fun new discovery today...I'll take a picture and share that with all of you tomorrow. Big discovery. HUGE.

 

Stay tuned!