♥
As soon as we get to camp, Old Glory flies high.
In our little building where we store our supplies {and also where we sleep} we have this little mirror that I painted a few years ago.
Pretty silly, but I thought I'd share it here. I used a gel pen to write "Happy Camper" on it. {Funny - I think this is the ONLY thing I ever used those pens for!} Anyway, every time I use it to fix my hair it makes me smile because, well, every time I'm there I'm HAPPY!
I made some yummy sun tea and brewed it in the middle of the wild flowers currently in bloom. Pretty little purple flowers everywhere this time! By the next time we visit these will most likely be gone and replaced by the next round of flowers.
We took our quad out for a ride and along the way we saw wild life! This time a 4 foot long king snake. He wasn't poisonous, so I wasn't afraid. {I did shoot a brief video of this bad boy crawling away, but in the interest of not creeping my blog readers out, I decided to share only a still shot. You're welcome.}
We had a picnic lunch by "The Boulders."
This place is about 5 miles from our property and set in some beautiful tall pine trees. There are these huge round boulders in the middle, just random big rocks that don't match any other rocks in the area. You can see them in the background in the photo below...{clink} "To us!"
We took a delicious nap. The wind was blowing through the trees and the weather was SO beautiful!!!
Then we took a walk. I spotted this tarantula web in a tree stump:
This morning after breakfast we took a little hike downhill on our property. We are working on creating a hiking trail that goes across the top of our property, down along the fence line, back across the bottom and up the other side. You can see the path going between the trees below...starting to take shape...
And we made this trail head marker at the start:
And we made this trail head marker at the start:
We packed up and left our sanctuary around noon, and as we were driving out I snapped this photo of our fence along the front property line. Doug and his brothers have been working on cutting sticks and wiring them in for a while, and the fence is now complete all the way around our 5 acres. I love it!
Since one side of our property backs up to forest preserve, there are cattle that graze there. They wander all over the place, including up onto our property. We wouldn't really mind, but they really leave some big messes behind. This fence should keep them out...time will tell...
Since one side of our property backs up to forest preserve, there are cattle that graze there. They wander all over the place, including up onto our property. We wouldn't really mind, but they really leave some big messes behind. This fence should keep them out...time will tell....
Driving home, exhausted and a little sun-burnt, I still had Doug stop the truck so I could take a picture of this cholla cactus in bloom. I was wearing flip-flops and couldn't hike in to get a better shot (you need protective footwear when walking in the desert!) so this is as good as my zoom lens would get. It was so pretty!
So there's my weekend re-cap. The upcoming week will be a busy one for me and it includes several craft projects (hooray - I'll have crafts to share on my blog!!!). I have two birthday gifts to put together, a 4th of July banner to make, and ice cream sandwiches to make with a red, white, and blue theme.
How was your weekend?
xo
18 comments:
What an awesome post! Your happiness just shines through, and I love the self-portrait. Not a very exciting weekend for us - it was dominated by watching our favorite teams (U.S., England and Mexico)lose their World Cup matches!
Rinda
Wow Deb and I thought I had a busy weekend. How do you make Sun Tea? Sounds like something I need to do with my Rainbows!
Late night, can't sleep so I logged on to see what was happening in the world and just realized you'd posted something wonderful! Love the pictures and your story telling throughout! Great job, DD! Have a good week, Sweetie! xo
sounds fabulous in every respect, as Rinda says, the happiness shines through
You certainly do look like one happy camper! A lovely self portrait. I enjoyed the other photos too..we don't have snakes in Ireland, so they all seem a bit scary to me even the non-poisonous ones!
So, as I've been sweltering away in a region MUCH further North than you, I often wonder "how does she do it?!?" How do you live in the HEAT? How hot does it get at your Northern property? I mean, how northern are we talking? And does your weekend place have a/c? Any tips for surviving the summer time heat?
As always - great post! You look so so so cute! I love that happy face! Thanks for taking us along on the picnic!
You see, right up to the business with the snake and then the mention of the Tarantula web, I was wishing I could have joined you! Looks lovely there, must be great to have such a fab place to go to at weekends.
:o)
Karen ~ To make sun tea you just fill a jar with water, add a tea bag and sit it in the sun for a few hours.
And Robyn ~ We deal with the heat in Arizona like you deal with the snow in the New York winters! We just don't go outside a whole lot, and our air conditioning runs constantly. At our northern property (a 3-hour drive from home) we don't have a/c - or electricity for that matter. It tends to be about 15 degrees cooler there. This is probably the last time I go for a weekend until the weather cools down - maybe in September. One thing different about our heat in Arizona is that we don't have humidity like you do in New York, which makes it easier to handle in some sense I suppose. Hang in there! Summer will be over before we know it. xo
Sounds like a truly excellent weekend, Deb! Love the little photo in the fun mirror you made. Also that wonderful King Snake - he was beautiful.
Your little piece of desert looks like a small kingdom - you are a lucky family! I wish you many more lovely weekends this summer.
4th July on the way - is that the reason for the ice-cream sandwiches?
Have a great week!
I'm glad you guys had a good weekend and always happy to see your pictures! I can't believe you got that close to a snake...don't show Uncle Tim! :)
Lovely pictures and lovely place! I got older over the weekend so nothing special really! :-)
Arizona looks like a lot of Australia - except, any snake we come across we automatically assume it IS poisonous and will kill us!
Our weather is similar too - down in the south - here - it is a dry heat for the most part, up north is the killer humidity and tropical weather.
I was going to ask about the sun tea too, but I see you've answered that question - that's how I guessed it was made! What a lovely summary of your trip, great photos :-) Thanks for sharing xx
Great pictures Deb! How nice that you can escape the heat, wishing it was a litle cooler right now :)
What fun! Your flag is getting me all excited for the 4th. One of my favorite holidays because it's kind of low stress.
I was wondering about the sun tea too. You certainly do look so happy in the photo where you are looking into the mirror with your camera in hand.Sounds like a fab place to escape to x
I love your scrap pages but the thing I love most about your blog is your pictures of America. I'm in love with the USA!
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