Communing with Nature

Today we took a family outing to a local canyon. Our first stop was the nature center, where each of us found something to enjoy.

Joy liked story time.

Daniel liked opening and closing the front door.

Phillip and I liked checking out the snakes on display. We learned that the kingsnake got its name because it isn't affected by rattlesnake venom. It eats rattlesnakes for lunch. Don't mess with the king.

After leaving the nature center, we drove to a nearby trail head and hiked down to a stream where we splashed around and munched some goldfish crackers.

Look, Uncle Sean! There's a fish in that stream!

On the Carpet Lake

While Daniel's obsession with doors is still going strong, Joy prefers boats these days.

Here her toys ride a giant lizard boat while the monkey wakeboards.

Boats meet fashion.

Answering the age-old question: "How many toys can you stuff into a pool ring?"

Doorways to Adventure

Daniel loves doors.

He likes opening and closing the bathroom door, the bedroom doors, the cupboard doors, and he can keep himself entertained for twenty minutes (almost an eternity for a toddler) going in and out of our front door.

Today he discovered that Pink Grandma has DOUBLE doors at her house.

Sweet!!

Solar Dinner

Today I made my second attempt at solar cooking. The stakes were higher this time because I was cooking dinner. You can live without dessert, but I didn't want my family going to bed without dinner. Happily, that wasn't necessary.

I decided to try a beef dish and a squash casserole (squash courtesy of Aunt Breta).

I had trouble getting the oven hot enough at first so I put the reflectors on, which helped considerably.

After a few hours I mashed the squash and stirred in a few ingredients (bread crumbs, eggs, spices, etc.) to make a casserole, then put it back in the oven to bake.

Toward dinnertime I took the beef dish out out (you can see it browned nicely), and put a pan of rice in with the casserole. Alas, either I didn't plan enough time, or the rice pot's clear lid made it cook slower (in solar cooking you generally use black, covered pans to retain heat). At any rate, the rice wasn't done by dinnertime, so . . .

. . . I cheated and finished it on the stove. The good news is that it was already so hot that it boiled almost immediately and was done in 5 minutes.

All in all, the dinner was a success. I would have seasoned things a little differently, but the texture was great. Next time I plan to try recipes I've made before, partly so that I know what flavor to expect, but also to see how solar cooking compares to the conventional versions.

Birthday Weekend

We've done a lot of family birthday partying the last few days.

On Saturday my parents, Heather, and Sean joined us for dinner to celebrate my birthday. Afterward, Papa introduced Joy to the time-honored family game:

"Standing on Dad's Hands" (creative title, eh?)

Papa insisted that since he's been going to the gym lately, he could pick up Heather, too.

Heather seemed less than confident of this, but everybody emerged from the experience unscathed.

On Sunday we joined Mom H and Laura for a second Kimberly birthday party. We shared sumptuous fare . . .

. . . and a Gameboy tournament. :)

Monday we attended another birthday celebration, this time for Grandpa (pictured here with two of his fine sons).

Of course there was another yummy dinner involved. I'm not quite sure why people like to celebrate with food, but I certainly have no objection to the practice.

We also did a little splashing in the pool before everyone else arrived. It was a welcome relief from the increasingly hot weather. Say what you like about "June gloom"--I miss it.

Solar Sweetness

A few months ago we bought a solar oven--mainly for emergency preparedness, but also in the hope that it will help me bake in the summertime without heating up our little apartment. The fact that it doesn't use fossil fuels is also a nice bonus. Every little bit helps the environment and our utility bill.

Today I finally worked up the nerve to try the oven for the first time. I opted to start with an apple crisp recipe that uses dehydrated apples. Here are the apples sitting in plenty of water with some sugar, cinnamon, etc. I don't know how much water we'd actually have in an emergency, but hey, I'm just trying to figure out how the oven works at this point. And we like apple crisp.

I put the covered pot in the oven, fastened on the lid, and turned it toward the sun. The white thing in the corner is an oven thermometer. The oven heated to around 250 degrees, and it would have gotten hotter if I'd put the reflectors on.

After a couple hours the apples had reconstituted. I removed the lid, sprinkled the crumbled topping on top, and let it all cook until the sun went down (you can already see that the shadows are getting longer).

We sampled the crisp after dinner, and it was pretty good. The apples were great, but the topping was too sweet for my taste. Of course, that was the recipe's fault, not the oven's, and I look forward to experimenting with it more in the coming months. I may try bread or twice-baked potatoes. I've also had solar oven roast that was excellent.

Meanwhile, as I was endeavoring to escape the bondage of fossil fuels and hot ovens, my kids just wanted to escape out the back gate and explore the big, wide world.

Ping Pong and Hopscotch

It's been a fun holiday weekend.

Some of us squared off at ping pong.

Others preferred more relaxing activities.

Papa and Daniel brought me flowers, . . .

. . . and we wrapped up with a friendly game of hopscotch.

Here's Daddy hopping along with his little teammate. Picking your marker up while holding a toddler and balancing on one foot is no easy task, but Phillip and Daniel still nearly won. Maybe next time.

Sort of Independent

We decided to spend Independence Day weekend up at the lake. So did thousands of other people. Does that mean we weren't very independent? :)

Uncle Sean (who's a mechanic) did a little work on the boat motor before we headed out onto the water. Don't try this at home, folks--he's a professional.

Once everything was functioning properly, we cruised around the lake, . . .

. . . lounged on some water toys, . . .

. . . and tried out Papa's new floating trampoline.

Sean and Papa discovered that you can jump off the boat onto the trampoline, and it will catapult you into the water (sometimes flipping you in the process). I seriously considered trying it, but someone had to stay on the boat to watch Joy. And let's face it: I'm a water wimp.