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The little town we go to church had the cutest 4th of July celebration, like it looked like it was out of a Hallmark movie. There was a 5k in the morning, a parade, food trucks and vendors at park and then a firework show that evening! A friend and I ran the 5K, it was the first color run I’ve done! Chase brought the boys up and met us for the parade. The boys got lots of candy and got sprayed a bit by the fire trucks! 

We went to the park and stood in long lines to get yummy chicken! The boys played at the park and in the splash pad. Then that afternoon we gathered at a friends house and ate more delicious food, played and got to see the fireworks.

This all occurred on the 3rd of July…so on the 4th a little crew of coworkers gathered at our camp site for a potluck picnic! I made my an apple crisp pie! There was cornhole and memories made! We missed our normal family time but it was sweet getting to be together with other vagabonds sharing a holiday together. We had people from Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Utah and California! 

This week on the farm we really got see the fruits of our labor!! We got to harvest a few different varieties of potatoes. We cleaned and cooked them, and they were tasty!! A dream of the owner’s was to get guests to do the same. Dig their own food and cook it. Chase and I came up with an idea and we executed!! 

For the potato pickin powwow people got to dig their potatoes with Chase in the field. It was like treasure hunt people loved to get way more than they could eat…. so we took the extras to the restaurant! After getting their potatoes they cleaned them with instructions from Merrick “wash them real good like this”….as he forcefully rubbed his hands back and forth. I was at table with foil, oil, salt and pepper. They sliced their potatoes and doctored them up. Mac took them to get fresh green onions and/or rosemary from the green house to add to their packets. Then they folded their foil packets up and took them across the street to be roasted on the fire for 15ish mins. We did this Friday and Saturday nights and it was a hit! Everyone loved it and just kept talking about it. It was a fun time for us four seeing people enjoy what we’ve worked so hard on. We’ve been able to have lots of conversations with the boys about working hard and how God gives everyone different jobs and how doing a good job can make other people smile and excited. From the customer service call person to the doctor to the barista to the farmer everybody matters and everyone can make someone else have a better day just by the way they work and interact with each other!

This, being our last full week here, was also a week full of horse riding. Everyone got one last ride in! Mac had another lesson, Merrick got to do another junior ride and Chase and I got to go on an hour ride one morning! Mac took his cowboy-ness up a notch after getting “tossed off” and got back on and finished his ride. His horse sunk down in some mud up to it’s knees and then as the horse really tried to get out Mac rolled right off…into the cushioned mud. So his fall was three feet shorter than it could have been and into something soft and squishy, we couldn’t have asked for a better fall off a horse! Not a tear was shed, he was startled a bit was brave and wanted to finish the lesson and get right back on! It was a really good teaching moment, we don’t want bad things to happen but when they do…we get up and keep on going!

Can you believe we’ve been here three months?!? Me neither! The end is drawing near so we are soaking up our time here. 

Fun facts: 

We have listened to home on the range about 16,283 times during this stent. The boys can each sing it word for word. We’ve listened to it via many different versions all the way from Gene Autry to Elmo 🤣 

We found some potatoes! We might start really harvesting a few rows before we leave woot woot! We got to do a taste sample and they were pretty tasty!!

Gas here is $3.59 🙄 

When asked where their favorite spot has been Mac and Merrick say here 9 out of 10 times. I was honestly a little worried about how they would like it here. No swimming pool, no play ground, no streets to ride bikes, no jumping pillow. But they love it here without any of that. It’s been so fun to see them grow and learn to play and imagine! 

I wear overalls 95% of the time at work 👩🏼‍🌾

We’ve seen more big horn sheep in the last week than we ever have in our lives! 

Garden babies are here!!! Tiny squash and tomatoes have shown themselves!!

A hummingbird got IN OUR CAMPER!!! We have no clue how, Merrick opened the door when we got home from work and there it was just fluttering around!

Zion National Park made the news with flash floods and park closures….we were on the other side of the mountain and got 0.04 inches of rain 🙃 

But on that note…Arizona and Southern Utah have monsoons….you heard me right there is a “monsoon season” and it’s just like it sounds heavy torrential  down pours and wind. They it pops up out of no where and is gone in a flash but the effects of it can be devastating. 

We hiked up and saw this view of Zion. Amazing piece of God’s handy work!! 

We’ve been doing a lot of weeding. And though it is not the most fun I get it. There are plants taking up water and space. Some are actually choking out the good things…our fruit (veggie!) bearing crops. 

We have to weed this garden. 

And I truly believe we have to weed our hearts. Our heart soil can be good and things can be growing but are we sure what is growing. Have we stopped and looked? Are we producing fruit or are there weeds choking the fruit out? 

It can be so hard to identify some weeds and some can be so easy. So easy that our five year old can get bucketfuls without us saying a word. And then there are times when Chase and I have to really look at the leaves and pull one out to see…and how do we really know it’s a weed….there is no fruit. 

If there are things in our lives that do not produce fruit why are they there and why in the world are we letting them grow?!?

It will alter our hearts when we weed. Some of the potatoes have been supported by weeds. The potatoes and weeds are tangled and twisted up together and when we pull the weeds out… the potato plants lose a leaf or two and look a little droopy. But with some water and some time these beauts grow! They get stronger, they stand up straight and tall and they produce more fruit. 

That water….without it nothing would grow. It’s a life giving water, a water that will make us thirst no more. So make sure you’re getting the water!! And don’t forget to weed, it’s not the most fun but it is productive, you’ll yield a better crop, He told me so! 

Matthew 13: 22 “As for what was down among thorns, this is he who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the pleasure and delight and glamour and deceitfulness of riches choke and suffocate the Word, and it yields no fruit.”

Once upon a time a cowboy was born. Man oh man Mac is going strong in this cowboy phase…that little video of him trying to rope and the baby bison came up to him that’s the life right! Mac gets dressed by himself every morning… 95% of the time he puts on jeans and a plaid button up shirt. 98% of the time he’s got boots and his hat. It’s just his thing right now! Each week here at the ranch there is a “roping show” and he brings his rope and they teach him a little more about it. Merrick was given a rope last week…so we’ll see how this all goes! It’s so much fun to see them doing new things! 

Garden update: 

• 39 cucumber plants (2 varieties)
• 228 tomato plants (11 varieties) 
• 44 squash plants (5 varieties) 
• 20 watermelon plants (2 varieties) 
• 20 cantaloupe (2 varieties)
• And then solid rows of spinach, kale, cabbage, green onions, red onions

Along with the three potato fields, eighteen potatoes pits and two asparagus fields we are keeping plenty busy 🤣 but really truly we are loving this work! When we left on this camper life adventure I thought gardening would be something I would miss in the spring….but here God took care of that 100 fold! We actually forgot to take two days off this week because…work really isn’t bad when you like it. We didn’t mean to and I doubt it happens again… but it really got us to thinking about how much we enjoy doing this. 

I had started some flowers in the green house so we finally got those in beds near the main office and restaurant! Sunflowers 🌻50 wild flower “hummingbird mix” and 24 nasturtiums. 

Merrick is in a highly absorbent sponge 🧽 stage. He is watching, listening and just soaking it all up. He is turning into a source of information and can usually relay a message. He joins Mac in giving tours at the chicken coop. The kid could sit on the tractor all day everyday. 

The boys picked gooseberries one afternoon! We turned them into gooseberry blueberry tarts when we got home. Mac wanted a candle lit dessert while we ate them so we did!

After church we explored a resivour we had been told about! Really neat little spot that I think we’ll visit after church more often! 

Animal highlight of the week: seeing a Western Tanager right in the campground! And getting to feed Bonnie the bison myself 😊

Coyotes, Bobcats and Snakes Oh My!!

What a whirlwind of wildlife!! We were up at the garden checking gophers traps…part of our morning routine…when Mac said mom is that a wolf or a dog….and I look and in the chicken coop area there is a coyote!! Chase and I head up there leaving the boys behind the fence and there were actually two coyotes! We run them off, let the boys watch an educational video on what to do if you encounter a coyote and go with our day. Not 45 mins later Mac and I are watering in the green house when Merrick runs in and says “Dad made the bobcat run away”…..well Chase had heard the chickens squawking so he went up there and going through the window of the coop he sees half of a bobcat….the other half INSIDE the coop! He throws a rock at it, bangs on the coop and it runs off. We let the boss man know and he got one of the ranch dogs up there to ward any future predators off!! That afternoon we saw a snake go by out in the open. A good opportunity for us to talk about snakes and really be able to show M&M a snake. Well it goes around the green house and not five minutes later Mac is walking and steps on said snake….a prime example of why we watch where we are walking….can I say it any louder! We were thankful for the experience but it sure scared him but I’m hopeful that lesson has sunk a litter deeper this time! 

We started moving stuff from the green house outside into the garden! At this point in time we have: 

• red onions- 278
• Red rock cabbage -seeds 
• Green onions- 259
• Dinosaur kale- 25
• Spinach- 39 
• Banana squash- 10
• Spaghetti squash-10
• Crookneck squash-7
• Cucumbers- 36
• Early girl tomatoes-25

Pictured below is some of the spinach starts we planted and Mac watering in the green house!

In most of the rows if the seedlings did not complete the row we put seeds in and hopefully will have a second yield from the younger plants after the first go around with the older ones! 

The rest of the seedlings were still too small/can’t handle the cooler temps at night so they are still getting bigger and stronger inside. 

St. George Utah is about an hour and half away and is the “big city” near us, it has the nearest real stores….so we adventured this week with a list of errands to run. We explored a garden there and it was so pretty! And the sunset on the way back through Zion was beautiful!! 

While in St. George Chase found a hat and a few shirts and now we have three cowboys! 

I painted some mountains along the boys beds in the bunk room….we might wrap the mountains around the whole room….but we’ll see about that! Love how they turned out for now! (This project $5.03- for a pint of paint—the darker brown and then I mixed the brown and the white/green that I had used for the living room and made the second range out of that, and then used the color for the living room for the front range!)

The ranch had an employees Jeep tour ride and we went! Fun little family outing one night! 

The buffalo fence is done!! ✅ and on that note….is it a buffalo or is it a bison. Well technically it’s a bison. There is no such thing as a buffalo in America. The only buffalo is a water buffalo and they are in Africa and Asia. Genetically the bison we see are closer to cattle than the real buffalo 🐃. But somewhere in American culture we started calling a bison a buffalo. It’s not like they are extinct from hunting or that the bison took over. It’s just that we called the bison a buffalo and it stuck. Soooo as we talk about them in our little family you would be corrected by a five year old and told they are “American Buffalo or Bison not just buffalo”…. so there you have it folks, may you sleep better tonight with that tid bit of info! 

Alert 🚨 Alert 🚨 chickens 🐓 and potatoes 🥔 do NOT go together ❌❌❌ 

The 52 rows of potatoes we planted looked like a giant buffet to the chickens…. which was less than ideal! 

The solution to that pesky problem was to put up a fence….across the entire length of the garden….this was no small feat for man kind! 

We were so thankful for the extra help that came to knock this project out. Chase learned about using a skid steer with a post hole digger attachment and was moving along just fine….until a water line was hit. Then I ran around here and there trying to find parts to get to one of our helpers who knew how to fix a broken water line (because we were clueless, but now we know!)…add in a gas line break and that day was a doozy. When we finally called it a day we had worked our longest day, a combined 18 hours. We typically average closer to 12-14 hours combined. 

After a solid 2.5 days and a few extra hours here and there we can finally say the chicken fence is done! Golly gee that was a feat! 

One morning we were asked if we could be mountain bike family models in 20 mins…we asked for 50 mins and got the job done 🚵‍♀️ We rode bikes on some legit mountain bike trails and were filmed here and there. It was tough for Chase and I, Mac did so good and kept trying. When he need a little more to keep him going a pep talk and ice cream offer kept his chin up 😜

We started to till the plot where our seed sprouts from inside will be transplanted outside. 25 early girl tomatoes have been planted thus far. These were not grown by seed, they we dropped off to us one day so we planted them 😆 

Merrick and I planted 278 red onions. I went to get a rake to cover the onions and he had started to cover them with the hoe on his own accord. A real life moment that showed me this boy is watching and learning. He saw us do this with he potatoes and knew just what to do! 

Chase was harvesting asparagus and noticed a seemingly fresh buffalo scat. We thought there was no way that could be the case. Upon asking our boss….🚨red alert 🚨….it was indeed and now…back to fence making! There must now be a buffalo fence around the entire garden! Thankfully we have a very handy cowboy friend helping Chase build a buffalo fence. Hopefully the garden will be safe from an rouge roaming buffalo! 

Spring is the time for babies that’s a known fact….There is a baby horse that was born on Cinco de Mayo…hence his name Cinco. He’s a cute little guy to watch run around. There are 3 or 4 bunnies who have had babies….there are going to be so many rabbits! There are baby chickens in a brooder in the laundry room. There is just new life everywhere!! I had never thought about baby buffalos….or that a baby buffalo might get orphaned but that’s what has happened to one calf and so she’s now a bottle fed baby buffalo here on the ranch. This little thing is pulling on my heart strings more than I ever could have thought. 

Reminds me that no matter what we always have a heavenly Father who loves us and will care for us even when we feel all alone. And it makes me wanna do that for this baby buffalo….bring it into our camper and give it cozy warm place to rest and play….but I’ll refrain from that craziness! 

We explored the Belly of the Dragon cave and the Pink Coral Sand Dunes Sate park! Both within 25ish mins of us, we’d recommend both if you’re ever heading to Zion. Really neat spots! One great thing about sand dunes….is that the kiddos can GO….so that little purple circle has Merrick in it….who may or may not have been leaving his mark 🙈 

Bryce Canyon National Park! This beaut is 1.5 hours away and is so neat! Rock formations like you’ve never seen before. 

We are going to garden, like legit garden. This isn’t just oh make it pretty anymore…this is let’s get some produce rolling so the restaurant can use it! Which is all fun….but ummm we have a LOT to learn! 

Seeds started this week: (and I’m sure more to come!)

25- spinach 

50- wild humming bird flower mix

50- lavender 

50- peppermint 

50- tomatoes

25- parsley

Raking fields: upon arrival I thought there was some wasteland near the green house…fun fact that’s the garden/field…

Days off: as long as the work is done we get to pick our days off, we picked Sunday and Friday this week. We haven’t had Sundays off this entire time we’ve been gone, sooo we got to go to church!!! 

Church ⛪️: 

We found a church about 30 mins away, and that town has the biggest/closest grocery store…so we now have a Sunday norm….go to church, get lunch and groceries for the week. The kiddos get to be in the same class for kids church and are enjoying it! 

Zion: 

It’s just a unique area! Red and white mountains with dark evergreens. There are lines and curves that are so soft….yet made of stone. It looks like lava had oozed and then stopped! 100% the best kid hiking we’ve been around. They can go pretty much anywhere just hiking right along!

Perk: 

Free lunches. Everyday there is free lunch for employees!! You go to the back entrance of restaurant and bam free hot meal. We’ve had a couple of different pastas, chicken wrap, Mexican type dishes. It’s been an array but almost always something we’ve never had and it’s been fun to mix up the menu! 

Laundry: 

At our other jobs we’ve always had free laundry, not here. It’s $1.50 to wash and another $1.50 to dry, thankfully some of the cheapest we’ve seen in that regard. Paying for laundry but getting the free lunches is a switch we’re happy to make! 

It’s a small world after all:  🌎 

Soooo the craziest moment thus far with humans goes like this… while we were in Tucson we had neighbors that were there for almost a month. Sweet little family. They went on their way. Last we knew they were in CA. Well….I was out in the field working and Chase is on the little tractor, next thing I know a pick up pulls up and a lady is frantically waving at me. Somehow they saw us and recognized us, and we ended up having a great evening and dinner with them. Soooooo insane! I can’t even imagine what the odds of the timing of this occurring but God is good and it happened! 

What are we doing: “just make it beautiful” said the boss soooo we are weeding, cleaning out all the old growth from last year and making it fresh. Killing gophers. Planting onions 🧅 roughly 460 or so. Harvesting and consuming asparagus. Riding horses. Fixing fence. Putting buffalo back where they belong. Collecting chicken and pheasant eggs 🥚—> eating said eggs 🍳 (only the ones that can’t be sold of course!) hiking mountains, finding slot canyons and exploring Zion National park. 

What’s it like here: 

—weather wise it’s always a surprise…. the nearest weather towns (locations known to the weather app) are about 15 miles in either direction down a mountain….so when it says it won’t freeze there that doesn’t mean it won’t freeze here soooo the first 7 days we were here we woke to frozen pipes 4 of those days but hopefully the cold has passed! (After waking to frozen pipes that first time we unhooked our water line thereafter). 

—communication wise….there is zero I repeat ZERO cell phone service unless you climb a mountain…. but at least the mountain does have a decent view 😜 

Thankfully there is WiFi in certain areas so we can make WiFi phone calls and send messages. 

—work wise….laborious…I have never in my life worked a manual labor type job (though there were a few nurse shifts that left like it!!) But it’s nothing like this we are outside 6+ hours a day and most of the time we are using real muscles! 💪🏼 Pulling pushing hauling raking shoveling etc etc and sheesh bed feels so good at the end of the day….and sometimes even after lunch 🙈 it’s called a siesta 😜

—children wise….they love it! We sing home on the range daily. They are learning a TON (and so are we!)They have gotten to do so many firsts. They sleep sooo good! 

—camper wise….our site is the best we’ve ever had. It’s HUGE! We have a “yard”. A hammock cove. Privacy. A treed area the boys can adventure and play. And a mountain on the other side….it’s pretty great…if only it had WiFi or cell service. (Taking any and all suggestions on how to make that occur…we’ve tried a WiFi booster with no luck 😩) 

We got new tires for the pick up….because we had one flat….and then learned that all the tires were too little (no wonder we got a great deal when buying it) and they could not legally sell us the same size tire to replace the bolt stricken one. In case anyone is counting… that’s 9 tires we’ve bought while on this adventure 😬😬😬

We’ve eaten and used lemons 🍋 like never before. We’ve made lemon bars, lemon brownies, lemon crinkle cookies, lemon poppy seed bread, coleslaw dressing, marinades, lemonade. We’ve used lemon juice to clean and we’ve made lemon volcanoes (aka lemons cut in half, stabbed and loaded with baking soda!)

We’ve gotten lost on a trail and hiked straight up a mountain to get back to the main part. All  trail and non trail ground looks the same….like  dirt 🙈🙈🙈

We’ve eaten the BEST tortillas!!!! And found the freshest and tastiest salsa! 

We had a moment where we couldn’t find Mac at the camp ground…he dropped a ball while riding his bike and went to go get it. Turned into a very educational experience 😜

We had our first ER visit. It was a perfect situation where we had friends there and they could come stay in the camper while I took Chase to the ER at 2am, which happened to be less than 2 miles away. All is well- just a little intestinal twisting causing severe pain…not his appendix exploding on us 🙌🏼

Mac is 💯 a no training wheels man and graduated to a bigger bike! Mer is getting faster faster on his balance bike! 

The cowboy life has been around since December, the longest thing they’ve ever been “into”….from Mac working his first cattle sale to Tombstone and now to living and working on a real ranch. I think it might stick around a little longer 🤠 

We got to southern Utah this past week. We’ll be here staying and working on a 6,000 acre ranch- full of bison, cabins, horses, chickens, bunnies and green houses. We’ll be doing landscaping, gardening etc. just “making it beautiful” as the boss says! 

We left Lake Enid, Mississippi and had an easy travel day down and over to West Monroe, Louisiana. We crossed over the Mississippi River and there was something that took us back to the good ole days when crossing the Mississippi River was such a feat and we did it so seamlessly. So thankful for the ease we live in these days! 

If you do not know, West Monroe is the home of the Duck Dynasty crew. We were able to tour the facility that the show was filmed in, as the production of the duck calls is now taking place in another facility. It was neat to walk around and learn more about it all. Thankfully we got to make our own duck calls during said tour and the boys are now two proud owners of duck calls 🤪 

We found some Christmas lights to drive through on a Saturday night…don’t know why we didn’t think about the wait to see the lights. The little guy fell asleep, but listening to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for an hour was grand for Big M and then ahhhh the lights! So neat to get to see them, they claimed 1 MILLION lights in 1 mile!

West Monroe is also where we bought paint to start a little renovation project on the camper! More to come but the paint is on the walls woot woot! 

Campground Review:

Pavilion RV park

$36 night full hook ups

Site 24- same as any other spot 

Details: had laundry and decent pond/walking area. No playground. Easy off the highway in-town stop. Had a “digger” on-site…if your two year old loves them it’s sure to be a hit….do you see that face….the face of a boy finding a digger!